


Freaky Frank and Casper the Ghost

by xlately



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: GEE IS A CUTESY LITTLE BUTTERFLY WHO IS ACTUALLY SO BAD AT BEING A GHOST, GEE IS SO CUTE OMG, Homophobic Language, M/M, Medium!ryan, PRIEST!JOSH, Violence, cutesy!frank, gerard also has very very severe anxiety, ghost!gerard - Freeform, i swear it's not as sad as it sounds man, macabre af!frank, shy!Gerard, some non-con elements during the end, this is the story i wrote a little thingy for a while back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-02 02:41:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 46,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5230790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xlately/pseuds/xlately
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard Way dies tragically one night, with many many regrets.</p><p>After he wakes up again, but as a ghost, he can do nothing but continue to reside in his old home, ignoring the potential buyers who come for his house and being ignored right back. It's just routine at this point. And it doesn't really bother him much anyway. He never was one for human contact.</p><p>And then Frank Iero, complete with freaky tattoos, shows up and moves into Gerard's house.</p><p>Gerard doesn't want him there, he wants him gone. Frank only wants to make friends with the weird little ghost who keeps doing weird things around his house.</p><p>After a while as Frank's weird ghost roommate, however, he and Frank are both starting to realise that they have bigger things to worry about than each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vera Lied Her Ass Off

**Author's Note:**

> Finally gotten to start this. I'm gonna use capitals instead of italics Btw, unless I REALLY need italics. Thanks guys, hope you like it!
> 
> (Possibility of very slow updates)

Gerard was so fucking done with Mikeyway, yes he was.

Because Mikey just would not stop fucking bothering him. It was all 'go outside ya loner' and 'why doncha just try buying your own shit for once' and that was virtually all his brother talked about anymore. It was annoying as fuck and Gerard really wanted to just say it to him, give it to him straight but there were two problems with that. One, Gerard was really not straight so he would have to give it to him bisexual and two, Gerard had such severe anxiety he struggled to say hello, let alone actually fucking complain. The closest to complaining Gerard could get to was nervous bisexual laughter. And that was the problem, that was why Mikey would whine at him all the time. Of course Gerard could understand. If HIS twenty six year old brother shut himself in his house years ago and barely sees sunlight anymore, he would be worried. And he would be even more annoyed if said brother made him go to the shops for him and deliver his work for him.  
That was basically all that was going on in Gerard's life right now. Lots of 'brooding in the darkness' and lots of not being able to talk to anyone to save his life. Anxiety was beginning to ruin him and he was easily known in this rugged town of Belleville as the weirdo that never left his house. Mikey had told him that he once heard some little kids call him an emo vampire. He might have as well been at this point. But he didn't consider himself emo. Sure, he had a very um...expressive taste of music, which was surprising for someone like him and he wore eyeliner and hated himself and life but he wouldn't go as far as to say he was emo.  
Gerard worked for a cheesy comic book publishing company that was called Comic Rocket. It was quite hard to get in but back when Gerard was eighteen and his anxiety was bearable to the level where he could sit in a classroom and do work, he had gone to Art School in New York and gotten himself a Bachelor of Arts degree. It was still a challenge to get the company to hire an antisocial man that only left the house to go to damn therapy but apparently, according to the CEO of the company who had messaged Gerard personally, he had a great amount of potential and his ideas were 'out of this world'. So with that being said, the company and his brother both dealt with him working non stop to meet deadlines and then getting Mikey to drop off the latest script for 'Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys'. It had become quite the popular comic and Gerard wasn't only known as an emo vampire now, he was known as the emo vampire with talent and money. Which was a better title so he was satisfied.  
Satisfied with his title, that is. His life was a whole different thing. He wasn't even close to happy. He had his dream job and possibly the most loving, amazing and supportive brother but he missed a lot of thing he used to have before he let this anxiety take over his life. He used to have friends. A guy called Vic and another called Kellin. They used to hang out with him in High School, he remembered, even though he was still a loser that would come to the brink of an anxiety attack whenever a bully decided to kick him. He also used to have an eating disorder where he was obsessed with the notion of 'being skinny', something he had never been in his life. So for a long time he wouldn't eat more than a few bites and then throw them up later anyway and it got to the point where he COULDN'T eat even if he wanted to. That was back when his therapist actually HELPED HIM and he managed to get through that. The anxiety though, that stuck with him even after he started eating normally again. He was satisfied with his weight now, something that took a long time for him to do, and he remembers when he felt proud of himself for being able to get over his fear of being fat. Now he had yet another thing to worry about. Let's not even mention that he'd only had one girlfriend and two boyfriends in all his life time. He'd also had oral sex once but it hadn't ended very well so he'd given up on the whole 'sex' scene. Sometimes he felt like he would really like a boyfriend or a girlfriend or just someone here other than his damn brother. Someone he could kiss and cuddle. He liked cuddling. But it was a little hard to meet someone when he didn't leave the house at all.  
He didn't remember how his anxiety had gotten so bad. It just kept on getting worst and worst and everyone around him, including him, neglected it until it got to the point where a guy placed his hand on Gerard's shoulder and Gerard had gotten a panic attack and passed out. And since that day he'd stayed inside and not dared walk in the sun. He hated himself for that, how easily he gave up but Gee had never been a manly man that had a whole lot of courage and confidence and it felt as though it was the last straw when he woke up in the hospital the day after those events. That was about four years ago. Yes, Gerard had stayed shut in his home for four whole years, only leaving when his brother practically dragged him to his therapist.  
Well even if he didn't have anxiety and extreme issues with um social things, he was convinced that he would be a very boring person. I mean, he wasn't funny, he knew that much. His jokes weren't any more advanced than the Chuck Norris level and people had gotten over that years ago. He wasn't even mildly interesting. He could talk about comic books and video games and he knew his shit when it came to D&D but no one wanted to hear about those things anymore. Except Mikey but he doesn't count 'cause he's a toothpick. And, ya know, his brother. He'd heard Gee talk about those thing twenty times over since they were kids, but he was past the level where he worshiped everything Gerard said and did, so it had become boring to talk with him about those things now.  
But you know what, none of that mattered. You know why? Because Gerard Way was currently dead as a fucking doornail. Yep. He was dead as fuck. And, ya know, a ghost. Yeah. He didn't remember much, just waking up at night and hearing noise from his living room. So being the scared little bitch he is, he grabbed the thing closest to him(a pillow) and walked to the living room with soft steps, his feet thudding a little against the hard wood floor boards. And before he knew it he was outside the living room, where two voices muttered darkly to each other.

"Take that—no, not the fucking remote Bert, you dumbass, grab the fucking stereo!"

"How was I supposed to tell what you were pointing at, it's really fucking dark in here! And don't call me a dumbass, dumbass!"

Gerard's breath hitched in his throat and he remained petrified, standing hidden right next to the frame of the door that lead to his living room, which was currently being raided.

"Jake, look at this crazy shit! Fuckin' X-men comics. Gotta tell you, this guy had good taste."

Gerard's breathing sped up and he tried to make his oncoming panic attack silent but he was shaking and his eyes were tearing up and he was on the verge of screaming and huddling to the floor with his arms cradling his head.

"What the fuck do you mean by 'had', Bert?"

"Well, we're gonna kill the guy, aren't we?"

"Why the fuck would we--"

You know, maybe if Gerard wasn't having a panic attack, he would have been silent. And he wouldn't have been noticed by Jake and Bert but whatever. He did make noise. And the sentence that could have potentially saved Gerard's life from Bert was cut in half as the robbers stumbled in the hall and saw Gerard with his back to the wall, eyes wide and breath loud as ever. He didn't even have the voice to plead mercy. When they pulled out guns Gerard started to let his sobs echo in the hallway, but he still didn't say anything. When the two realised that they were facing a coward the guy Gerard guessed was Jake put his gun away and sighed at Bert's direction.

"Can I kill him NOW?"

Asked Bert, his gun still pointed at Gerard's abdomen. Jake sighed, rolled his eyes, and waved his hand as if telling Bert to go ahead. Bert looked at Gerard with a sinister smile and cocked his gun. Before Bert could in fact kill him, Gerard found his words. And he isn't proud of them. They weren't good last words. They were scared and cowardly and Gerard wished once again that he could be strong, that he wasn't a shy, anxiety-tortured, coward. That he wasn't a 'man of few words'. 

"Shoot me in the head, at least."

He said and he found himself surprised at how steady his voice sounded, despite the tears that leaked down his face and the breaths that escaped him faster than Usain Bolt. He became sad when he realised later that maybe it was because he wasn't very upset about dying. He'd thought about dying many times. Maybe hanging himself, OD'ing on his prescription meds. But of course, he'd never had the courage to. Bert surprisingly shrugged, and spoke.

"Whatever you say, kid."

Before he raised his gun to Gerard's temple and pulled the trigger. And then darkness.  
For a few weeks Gerard was in a haze, waking up momentarily before sinking in blackness again. Later on, he didn't remember what he saw while being awake for a few minutes. When his vision finally steadied and he could stay out of the darkness for longer the last thing he recalled with full clarity was the sound of the bullet being fired. He was ultra confused. He was alive? How? But wait, if he had really been alive, wouldn't he have woken up in hospital? Maybe he was having a Malala moment and had managed to survive a damn bullet to the head. But no, he was in his home, which was now surprisingly empty. He remembers dashes of light and voices from the period after her was shot so maybe someone had moved his stuff out? But why? He was alive, as far as he could tell. Well, and then he found out he couldn't feel his own pulse. Or rather yet, he didn't have one. He also did not have any wounds from his 'past life' or a hole in his head. So there was only one conclusion he could come to. He was dead. Just not fully dead. Very ghost. Much wow.  
He spent the first seven months watching people after people come in and explore his house but no one was macabre enough to buy a house where a young man had been murdered. And honestly, Gerard didn't want them to. He was already freaking out just by being here and having panicky fits and crying relentlessly everyday, he didn't need people. Because he didn't know what was worst, people ignoring him or people not being able to see him. He didn't really want to find out.  
Thankfully, twelve months went past and no one had shown interest in the house. Gerard was see through but he was starting to be slightly okay with that. He had freaked out when he realised he couldn't leave his house, but he never did in really life any way, why would be now? It was still upsetting because at least in his past life he'd had the choice and the outside world was always there if he wanted to see it. Now he simply couldn't. Even thought all of that had happened, Gerard was starting to get used to it and no one was coming to look at the house anymore. Life, or after life, was starting to look up. But then, something happened.  
This is where our story really begins. Let me set the scene for you. It's a dark morning, of course it's raining, it's autumn. And in NJ it's pretty much guaranteed to rain seven months a year anyway. Gerard is sitting on the floor of the empty living room. He was very happy because he'd figured out how to hold objects. He'd kept a secret notebook with pens and pencils inside a little nook in the floor that was well covered by a loose floorboard. Gerard had found it when he'd first moved in and hidden his stuff there in case of emergencies. No one knew about it. So from the day Gee calmed down he had gotten to work trying to get his fingers to grasp the floor properly. It didn't work for a long time. The only part of him that seemed to be making contact with anything was his feet with the floor. And sometimes his ass with the floor. Whatever it was, he could walk and sit but he couldn't pull that floorboard up. Thing was, he just had. And he'd also managed to grasp a pencil and start drawing, something he'd yearned to do for a long time. So there he is, drawing while the rain beat against the window when his head snapped up at a sound that came from the door. He stood up rapidly and shoved his stuff in the floor, covering the nook with the floorboard and listening in as voices got closer.

"Sorry I'm late, traffic was crazy with this weather."

"It's no problem mister Iero. Let's look around shall we?"

The first voice Gerard didn't recognise. It was not low but not high either and it sounded friendly and well mannered. The second voice was of that bitch real estate agent called Vera that had been trying to get people to buy this place since the day Gerard died. Gee didn't want them there. He didn't want anyone to bother him! He'd just settled in to the place and then all of a sudden people are trying to break into his personal space and purchase HIS house. To be fair, they didn't know he was there, but still! Gerard angrily stomped his way to the entry hall to scope out the new guy that would run off after hearing that a 'poor man was murdered' there. He immediately decided to back off and let the guy buy the house if he wanted it because holy fucking shit he was SCARY! Every inch of his body that was visible was covered in tattoos and the mere thought of needles made Gerard shy away in disgust. He also had multiple piercings(on his lip, nose, ears etc.) and he was wearing a Memphis May Fire shirt. Gerard was scared of screamo. He preferred punky rock tunes and of course he was big on rock operas such as Queen's A Night at the Opera. But he'd always been scared of that image, the 'I scream a lot and have loads of tattoos and piercings. Also, I eat kids for breakfast'. The funny thing was that Gerard knew that it was absolutely false and a total stereotype but his anxiety just kept on screaming at him that this guy was trouble(no matter how short he was!). Mister Iero waltzed through the house as if he already owned it, ignoring Vera for the most time. He seemed to have decided, just as Gerard had, that she wasn't worth the time and attention. Gerard shivered from fear in the corner like a little kid the whole time Frank scoped out the house, not paying attention to anything that was said up until they walked into Gerard's old bedroom where surprisingly, his posters were still up. Gerard had been very pleasantly surprised when he'd seen them but he didn't complain about it at all. Frank showed immense interest in his horror movie posters. Surprisingly, Gerard was very big on horror movies, despite being a scared little kid most of the time.

"So, are these posters included?"

Frank asked and anger boiled inside Gerard. No, those were HIS posters! No one else's. He couldn't have them, they weren't his!

"Yes, absolutely, they are! They belonged to the previous owner."

"Speaking of the previous owner—"

Gerard smirked and crossed his arms over his chest as he heard those words. Bye, bye, random guy that wanted to buy HIS house.

"—what happened to him?"

Gerard expected Vera's usual words. Oh yes, he'd died a tragic death, gotten shot in the head and died instantly. And then this Iero guy could pack his shit and leave Gerard's property. But the anger inside Gerard's chest boiled up again when he heard the next words that Vera uttered.

"Oh, he decided this place wasn't for him. Moved to Paris, something about getting his writer mojo back."

Gerard's mouth hung open in shock. It seemed that Vera had figured out why people didn't want to buy the house and decided to turn the tables a little. Gerard was surprised at how easily the lie slipped out her mouth. But then again, she was a real estate agent, he'd heard her lie before. 'Oh yes, Mr and Mrs Jones, the bedroom is soundproof!' Or 'No, there are absolutely no rats in the attic, it has been checked multiple times.' But to go as far as to lie about the resident history. 

Well, no matter how shocking and wrong it was, it worked, because only a few days later a moving truck rolled up the road and Frank Iero parked his black car in the driveway. Gerard stared out the window like a creepy vengeful spirit, seething with anger so dark and powerful, much more than he'd felt before. Frank seemed like an okay guy, to be fair, but Gerard still didn't want him there. Why did this happen to him? What the hell did he do to deserve an endless and restless afterlife, stuck in the same goddamn house for all eternity. Frank waltzed up to the door, unlocked it with his golden key and stepped inside, right foot first(for good luck). He dropped his bags on the couch, GERARD'S old couch, and sighed as he looked around.

"Okay, Frank, this is it. Your new start."

Gerard rolled his eyes and scoffed. This fucking loser was talking to himself. Not even Gerard did that. Gerard felt bad after thinking that. All the spite in him must be boiling up, this was really unlike him. Frank giggled and Gerard found his heart fluttering a little for some reason. That was legitimately the cutest thing Gerard had seen; ever. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts away, as the moving guys waltzed in carrying boxes labeled mainly with 'CD's'. There were also lots of DVD's and Gerard seethed at the realisation that if he was alive, he'd probably be friends with this Frank guy. And, ya know, if he could actually talk to people. This was nice, not having to talk to anyone. Although he did miss his brother. He wondered how Mikey was doing without him. 

But he didn't let himself think of that yet, because Frank was walking toward him. Gerard had been staring down at the ground, not making a sound or moving and when he looked it up was too late, and Frank walked straight through him. It was a weird feeling, being walked through, like a cold chill ran through your dead bones. Gee imagined it was worst for the actual human. And true enough, Frank doubled over and groaned, rushing to the nearby bathroom seconds later and throwing up. Gerard winced and mentally apologised. Throwing up sucked, he wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not even Freaky Frank. Okay, what's up with Gerard's mind? Freaky Frank? Why come up with nicknames now? Especially MEAN nicknames. Something was up with Gerard, he could feel it. And it sure as hell didn't feel very nice.


	2. Andy Hurley Makes A Cameo Appearance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's your new chapter :) I'm proud of myself because it's pretty long. For my standards, at least. It's like 5,200 words. Enjoy :D I would love some more feedback!
> 
> Thanks so much, by the way, for being so supportive! You guys were so nice about the first chapter. Thank you so much :))
> 
> Does anyone know The Wonder Years??,, I just found them and they are legit so good I'm obsessed okay byeeee,,,

The days went by surprisingly slow as Gerard began to loathe Frank from a distance. Honestly, things were so much better without him. All he did was listen to his horrible screamo music all day and maybe make a coffee or two for himself sometime, which only made Gerard jealous. He also played his guitar quite a bit and although he was good, the noise was starting to become a little too much for Gerard. He wanted back the peace and quite that he'd maintained for all these years, even before he was dead. He wanted Frank to just fuck off and leave him alone.

Another extremely annoying thing about Frank is that he brought so many guys home he must have been some kind of whore. Well, for Gerard standards anyway. Frank brought home about one drunk guy a week and Gerard was forced, one night a week, to block his ears and try not to get a ghost boner. Because honestly, he'd never experienced sex, with neither men nor women, and it sounded quite exciting, if Frank's moans were anything to go by. That just made Gerard even more jealous of the fact that Frank had a life and was actually living it. It also made his days very very awkward. Well, his whole existence, whether it be corporal or not, was very awkward so he was kind of used to it. Still, that didn't make the fact that there was a human in his home better.

Gerard found it hard to deal with the fact that there was someone else living with him. That was something he hadn't experienced for years, ever since he moved out of his parents' place. It felt almost as if he had a dysfunctional roommate who hated him and never spoke to him. Only, it wasn't like that. Maybe this whole situation would be just a tiny bit better if Frank could hear Gerard, if Gerard could tell him that he could hear him when he brought men home. If Frank was just as equally aware of Gerard's existence as Gee was to his. But unfortunately, the only contact Gerard had been able to make with Frank was back when he was walked through and that wasn't pleasant for either of them. Not that Gerard cared about being pleasant at this point but his own comfort was at stake as well, so he had to find another plan.

That was essentially all he did. He sat around and glared at Frank while the man in question went on with his jobs and Gee plotted how he was going to get Frank to go. He could touch objects, it dawned on him about a week after Frank had fully moved in. So maybe pushing things around and making noise would scare him enough to make him go? Gee saw no such results a week later. He'd dropped a pan before Frank's feet as he was walking past and successfully made Frank jump in surprise and look around in curiosity. He swung doors open and closed and made Frank get a worried, furrowed eyebrow look. God's sake, he even used his pencils(the red ones!!1!)to write 'GO AWAY' in big bold letters on the wall. But it seemed as if Frank was that stupid white guy from horror movies who decides to investigate instead of packing up and getting the hell outta there. Gerard had tried to write something more threatening after but it didn't work. He actually couldn't write something as mean as what he was thinking. He hated himself for being so awkward and shy. So anyway, after all those occurrences, Frank decided to take action. As in, buy a fucking ouija board.

Gerard didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Frank came home one day carrying a ouija board box. And red 'satan scented' candles. If Gerard was actually a vengeful spirit or something Frank would have probably been screwed. But no, he had just happened to stumble across the shyest ghost ever. Frank wasn't very scared when he decided to use it because his friend Robert knew Jensen Ackles and the guy must know something about getting rid of ghost, if Frank ever needed to do so. Frank laid out the ouija board and the candles, the whole time smiling like a maniac. Gerard watched him with his arms crossed over, hoping he hadn't encountered a crazy guy because last time he did he got a bullet to the head. Frank cleared his throat and (after reading the instructions that came with the box set) placed his hands on the ouija board and spoke, with a voice that was loud and clear(as directed by the instructions).

"Spirit—if you can hear me, show yourself to me. I mean you no harm."

Gerard was already harmed by the cheesiness of the whole situation. He was not about to answer. He was not about to play along in this cliché reenactment of every horror movie ever. And just when he thought things couldn't get weirder, a fucking thunderstorm happened out of fucking nowhere. Gerard sighed as he heard the rain start to fall. Well fuck. Frank now must think he wants them to be friends and have pillow fights together. Because obviously, in ghost language, a thunderstorm means either 'I want to cut you up and feast on your flesh like Anthony Hopkins in The Silence Of The Lambs' or 'I want to play barbie-doll tea party with you'. Gerard wanted neither of those things. He wanted Frank to go away and stop with his nonsense. Although technically, it wasn't nonsense because Gerard was very much a ghost, and he was very much there.

"Let me see you! I mean no harm to you."

Frank spoke again, closing his eyes and grinning as the thunder struck. Gerard found it quite funny when Frank started singing AC/DC under his breath after he got bored. Gerard didn't know the particular song, because he wasn't a big fan of AC/DC, but it was quite catchy.

"Thunder!"

Frank bobbed his head a little, losing track of himself as he waited for a response. He sighed after a few minutes and removed his hand from the ouija board. He stayed with his eyes closed as he spoke.

"You're not gonna show yourself, are you?"

Gerard snorted and spoke, out loud.

"Fuck no, what did you think?"

Frank's eyes shot open and he stood up, eyes darting around quickly.

"Who's there?"

Frank spoke and Gerard eyes widened. It was very nice to see the scared expression on Frank's face but it wasn't very fun to know Gerard had been heard. Fuck, Frank's voodoo bullshit worked after all. As if things weren't bad enough, thunder struck outside the window and Frank swore that within the light that was shed inside the living room, he saw a man standing across from him with his arms crossed.

"Ah!"

He shouted and fell back and Gerard shouted in fear as well, both of the thunder and Frank's quick movements. They both fell back against the chairs that were behind them and lightning lit up the room once more. But when Frank opened his eyes, there was no one in front of him. He jumped to his feet once more, regaining his previous strength.

"I saw you! I saw you, I know you're here!"

Gerard knew he was supposed to scare Frank, but the words he spoke made a chill run up Gee's spine. He didn't know why. He stood up and stomped away as quickly as he could as Frank's breathing slowly calmed down. Frank stayed in the living room, maybe hoping that the ghost was still there. Gerard was scolding himself as he walked away. He'd let this case get way too far! He'd let Frank get way too close to him and Frank was surely not going to leave him alone now. He shut himself in the basement with his sketch book, drawing whatever was on his mind at the moment as he heard Frank stomp around upstairs. He was making a call, Gerard deciphered and he could also hear small snippets of Frank's conversation.

"Ray!—No, I swear he was right there! No, I'm not on drugs. Ray, just—No, I swear I'm not high!"

What scared Gerard the most must have been that when he looked down, he realised he had drawn Frank. Every little detail was expertly sketched out on his page, from Frank's piercings to his thick eyebrows. Gerard scrapped the drawing and threw it to the other side of the room, grunting in anger. Frank was ruining his life. After-life, actually. Any sense of sanctuary was gone. He really needed to scare Frank this time. He put some thought into it.

"If I was a human who is way too interested in a ghost, what would the ghost do that would really scare me?"

He pondered out loud and then looked at his drawing from across the floor. 

"Leave a drawing of me lying around perhaps."

That was REALLY scary! Gerard was so proud of himself, honestly. If a drawing of him was found lying around after he knew he lived with a ghost, he would shit his pants. He didn't think of the fact that this might not be as scary as he thought due to the fact that Gerard was scared of pretty much everything. He added some red around Frank's neck to symbolise blood and hoped Frank wasn't really macabre. He honestly nearly threw up looking at the red blood. This was gonna work for sure!

**

It didn't work. Frank found the drawing lying on the kitchen bench and just stared at it for a while, as Gerard snickered under his breath and got ready for Frank to pack his bags and leave. Turns out it wasn't as scary as Gerard thought, and all Frank did was whisper.

"Thanks, little ghost. You're really good at this, you know?"

Gerard not only blushed like a tomato, but also felt the steam rushing out his ears. What was it going to take for this Frank guy to go away. As if the embarrassment wasn't enough, Frank fucking fRAMED THE DAMN PICTURE. And put it on his wall. In a black frame with red carved flowers. How the hell was Gerard going to get Frank to go away?

**

Frank was pacing at his friend Ray's record store, his arms behind his back and staring at the floor while smiling excitedly. He suddenly stopped, turned to Ray and spoke, with a bounce in his voice.

"What should I do, Ray?"

Ray gaped at him with his arms crossed and his eyebrows furrowed, his mouth opening and closing for a few seconds before he looked at the expectant look on Frank's face and finally spluttered with disbelief.

"Call a Doctor! Or a psychiatrist, depending on how crazy you feel!"

He motioned with his arms flying all over the place, clearly not believing Frank's very very real story. He had run his hand through his unruly afro a few times, so now it was flying around the place, even more than usual. Frank had come to visit him at work, telling him all about the ghost that was haunting his new place. Obviously, Ray believed none of it.

"I'm telling you, Ray! He's real! I saw him, and he left me a drawing. Come on, you know I can't draw for shit, who the hell would draw this thing and leave it at my place?"

Frank pointed out, showing Ray the picture on his phone again. Ray shook his head from side to side and refused to acknowledge the fact that the drawing was in fact very much real. He was actually convinced his friend needed medical help.

"Should I call a medium or something?"

Frank looked at the picture as he pulled it away from Ray, smiling to himself. Ray felt sick at the look on his face. This obsession with ghosts had to stop now, he couldn't let his friend be robbed by a fake medium, Frank was already on the brink of homelessness. And he was really naive as well, he would fall for it. So Ray stood up from his spot and spoke with his eyebrows furrowed in anger.

"No! Don't you dare, Frank! I swear to God, I will call your mother and get her to come here from Italy!"

Ray threatened, feeling it was his last resort. But even the threat of calling Linda Iero didn't work as it usually did. Frank wouldn't get that love-sick look off his face as he kept on looking at the picture on his phone. He waved his hand in a 'go away' motion as he walked out of the store, without even saying goodbye. He just muttered under his breath about 'medium' and 'phone catalogue'. Ray shook his head in disbelief and watched as a man entered the store right after Frank. 

He was tall and lanky, with dyed blonde hair that was styled in a variation of a quiff. He was wearing an Anthrax shirt and black skinny jeans. He had awkward knees that reminded Ray of Harry Potter and also teenage Frank. The man had a very depressed look on his face and the bags under his eyes gave away how much sleep he had been getting; obviously minimal. He walked up to the counter Ray stood behind and spoke in a leathery voice that sounded strained.

"Do you guys have any Iron Maiden records?"

Ray nodded at him, smiling his best smile as he walked toward the Iron Maiden records stand and motioned for the guy to follow him. He walked over to the stand and found his personal favourite, Killers. He grabbed it and handed it to the guy.

"This is my favourite. Are you a fan?"

The man nodded and smirked sadly. He didn't say something after that, just stared at the record in his hands as he mumbled under his breath.

"This was Gee's favourite as well. Back when he still liked this kinda stuff."

Ray guessed he wasn't meant to hear the statement, so he stayed silent. He saw the guy slowly sinking into wonderland and decided to say something to get his mind back to earth.

"I'm Ray. You are?"

He spread his hand and watched as the man shook it and smiled weakly at him, tucking the record beneath his arm.

"Mikey. Do you think I can buy this?"

Ray smiled and nodded at him with an 'of course' as he lead him to the counter, taking his money and checking him out(not in that way omg). Mikey waved as he left the shop and Ray found himself hoping that maybe he'd be back. And then he started thinking about Frank again and how that stupid idiot was going to get a medium to come to his house and see if he could find an entity. But then suddenly, Ray was struck with an idea. He knew a medium. He could get him to come in and tell Frank that there wasn't any ghost. Ray knew Ryan wouldn't steal Frank's money and he'd let him down easy, so it was obviously the best choice to call him. 

Ray pulled his phone out and typed a number up, putting the phone to his ear and listening in as Ryan's young voice answered him from the other side of the phone.

"Hey Ray! Long time no talk!"

Ryan mumbled shyly down the line, still nervous even though he'd known Ray for years. Ray greeted him back and held some casual talk for a while, really hoping that Ryan will do him this favour.

"How's Brendon? You guys still together?"

Ryan blushed on the other end of the line, stuttering a little as he answered.

"Y-yeah, our four year anniversary is in two weeks."

Ray smiled at the thought of them together still. They'd met through Ray, actually. Ray had gone to college with Brendon and met him there while he met Ryan at a convention about the Beatles. He held a party for his twenty fifth birthday a while later and both Ryan and Brendon were invited. He introduced them to each other and they ended up making friends, then boyfriends only two months later.

"That's great! Listen Ry, I need a favour from you. I know you don't do the whole medium thing anymore but a friend thinks his house is haunted and I need you to check it out, please."

Ryan sighed down the end of the line. Ray never believe this type of Medium stuff like Ryan did but he never blamed him. The only reason Ryan knew about it was because his whole family from his mother's side had the gift of being able to communicate with spirits and other entities. Ryan had tried to shove his gift out of his life after a few traumatic instances, but it always ended up cropping up again. He thought it over for a while, the phone completely silent as Ray chewed on his nails nervously at the other end of the line. Finally, he sighed again and spoke.

"I'm in LA right now. I'll be in New Jersey by Monday. And I swear to God Ray, I will leave as soon as I confirm that your friend is suffering from something and seeing things, okay?"

Ray spewed thanks down the line until Ryan rolled his eyes and hung up on him to go find Brendon and get himself some milk to calm him down. Ray jumped around and little and suddenly realised he had no battery on his phone. He groaned at the realisation that he would have to walk to Frank's place and tell him about Ryan. He pulled on his hoodie and shouted toward the general direction of the store room, where his mate Bob was working.

"Bob, handle the shop for a sec, I gotta go do something!"

Bob shouted back in a pleasant voice that Ray could go shove all that up his you-know-what but he still agreed. He grumbled under his breath after Ray left to speak to Frank.

"Honestly, I do all the work around here.'Arrange it all like this Bob!' and 'Try a bit harder, Bob!' and then they scrap the whole album—whoops, I meant IDEA—and I have to arrange everything all over again! Honestly."

**

Ray took his time while walking to Frank's place. He didn't particularly wanna get there, to be honest. He loved Frank, but sometimes he got a little too excited and just a little too much. His excitement about pretty much everything was very refreshing, but sometimes Ray needed a brake from it. Times like when your friend is convinced he is living with a ghost. 

So Ray walked down the street casually, his floppy hair flying in the wind. Today was a very nice day. Not weather-wise, the weather was shit—light drizzle not satisfying enough to be rain and clouds that blocked the sun—but it was a nice day to be outside, for some reason. The fresh wind felt great inside Ray's lungs and it gave him a free and open feeling, one he didn't get to experience very often. He looked up at the cloudy sky and shoved his hands in his pockets. He probably shouldn't have done that, however, because walking down the street toward him—and just as distracted as he was—was Mikey Way. Again. Mikey had bought his vinyl and then walked toward the coffee shop that was near by. He'd stayed there for a while, waiting for his black coffee, before he'd headed out again toward the direction of the vinyl shop, planning on making his way home and sulking about his brother's untimely death. That was actually what had distracted him, Gerard. He'd been thinking about him, again. Mikey hadn't stopped thinking about Gee since his death about a year ago. The funeral was an absolute mess, there weren't many people that bothered to show up. Brian did, of course, so did James, Lynz and Mike and of course Gerard's parents and other relatives. But no one else showed. It bothered Mikey, because although Gerard was way beyond anti-social, people that knew him claimed to love him and find him interesting. So tell me, he though, if 'Emma from Gerard's science class, one of his greatest friends' really was just that, why hadn't she shown up? And all the people that called Mikey and told him his brother was amazing and they were great friends. Why didn't they come? 

Mikey was caught up un his thoughts, and he wasn't looking where he was going. Neither was Ray, who was, unlike Mikey, experiencing very positive emotions. Those positive vibes were kinda killed though when Ray found himself drenched in a pumpkin spice latte. You would have thought he had a bitch fight with a white girl.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!"

A familiar voice bellowed and a hand grabbed his shoulder. Ray kept his shirt away from his body with his hands in order to not get burnt. He was honestly pissed. The one time he was enjoying nature like some hippy, this happens. This is why we can't have nice things. But Ray wasn't an asshole, he wasn't about to go off on the poor guy who was clearly very upset right now.

"It's okay, I wasn't—Mikey!"

Ray looked up halfway through his sentence and saw the familiar toothpick of a man that he had sold a record to just about half an hour ago.

"Ray! I'm so damn sorry."

Mikey looked so apologetic and he actually felt like shit. He liked Ray, he looked like a great guy. He was planning on going back to the record store and talking to Ray—maybe asking him out—but clearly that wasn't going to happen now. Unless, Mikey could fix this. There was only one thing he could think of doing right now and it would either make it or break it.

"I'm so sorry, man!"

"It's okay, really."

Mikey bit his lip and spoke, hoping Ray would agree with him.

"My place is only five minutes away, I'll give you one of my shirts."

Mikey offered and Ray looked up from his shirt, while holding it away from himself and trying not to burn his fingers.

"Are you sure your shirts will fit me?"

Mikey didn't believe he was about to do this, it seemed very much impossible. But he had one of Gerard's shirts at home. Was he really willing to give it to Ray? His dead brother's shirt? Yes he was, as long as he had a guarantee of getting it back. It was a black Queen jumper his brother had gotten for his fifteenth birthday. It was very big, since Gerard used to be. He'd lost weight in the past few years so he didn't need it, it was way too big, and Mikey always favoured wearing his brother's clothes. They smelt like him and made him feel safe and unbreakable. He always believed his brother to be very strong, even though no one else could see it. Gerard was always strong for Mikey, but never strong for himself.

"I've got one that will. Come with me."

And so they walked away toward Mikey's house, both of them silently glad they met each other again. But in his mad rush, Ray didn't realise he forgot to tell Frank about Ryan. Which in itself, lead to a lot of problems.

**

Frank decided, oh yes indeed he did, that he needed to call a medium immediately, as soon as he got home, thank you very much. So that's just what he did, he made it home and grabbed the phone book, finding what he needed. This guy called Andy Hurley seemed like the real deal. And Frank wasn't bothered enough go actually research. So he called and it seemed like the guy wasn't very busy, because he offered to show up on Friday, tomorrow. And Frank was very proud of himself for being able to arrange this like an adult.

When Andy showed up the next day he actually seemed like the real deal. The ghost hadn't acted up and the truth was, Gerard was drawing in the basement, not wanting to face Freaky Frank. He didn't hear the medium come in and maybe if he had, he'd have found a way, based on what Andy told Frank, to make Frank get scared out of his wits and go away. But he just continued to draw while muttering Misfits under his breath. 

Andy walked in dressed in rags and bracelets like a movie psychic. The moment Frank opened the door and invited him in, he threw his hand to his forehead and breathed deeply, making sure Frank noticed him do so.

"Are you okay?"

Frank asked worriedly as he saw Andy double over, as if overwhelmed. Andy was very good at this, he had to admit. He'd been doing this for years now, so had his father and his father before him. Being fake psychics just ran in the family, you could say. He had been acting like this since he was a kid, pretending to see ghosts and then taking people's money for it. This guy, Frank, was no different. When Frank had called him in what he called 'a desperate attempt to prove to himself he's not crazy and there really IS a ghost in his house', Andy had jumped at the chance of money.

"Woah. Nothing, Mr Iero, I'm just getting some really strong vibes from this place."

Andy acted up like he usually did, pretending to be feeling this ghost thing that was apparently haunting this place. This Iero guy was just another nutter, he told himself. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could go. Truth be told, Andy loved to make up stories to tell the residents. Like 'Oh yes, Ms Forcible, your stuffed dogs do carry spirits inside them. They want to communicate with you' and so on so on. He was excited about the story he'd been thinking up to tell Frank.

"So there is a ghost? I knew it!"

Frank spoke and looked off in the distance as if having a war flashback. He couldn't wait to tell Ray this. Speaking of Ray, where the fuck was he? Andy was lead to the dining room, where Frank sat him down and brought him a coffee. He talked with him for a while. Andy admitted to himself that it was very weird for a random drawing to show up. That was the only thing that showed supernatural activity, something that Andy himself did not believe in. Other than that, it was the usual 'ouija board and lightning' stuff. Andy pretended to be concerned when Frank told him, but he was really laughing to himself on the inside. After a small conversation, he spoke.

"Where can we begin the ritual?"

Andy asked, snapping Frank out of his thoughts. Frank nodded toward the dining room, where Andy led himself and got set up. He put these special decorations all over the place, these fishbones and little rocks that he pretended helped him talk to the spirits. He then sat Frank down and sat down next to him. He held his hand and spoke with a spooky voice.

"Frank—can I call you that?"

Frank nodded intently and Andy went on, loving the way Frank hung from his every word like some idiot.

"I need you to stay calm for me. No matter what happens, what you see or hear, you will need to stay calm, not speak, or open your eyes. This spirit might be dangerous. We don't need to anger it."

Frank nodded solemnly and Andy was so happy with himself. Frank looked so damn convinced. Andy shut the light off and held Frank's hand, telling him to breathe in deeply. He then spoke in the same eerie voice he'd used before, but this time he wasn't addressing Frank.

"We wish to communicate with you, spirit. Are you near us?"

Andy asked in the air and then waited a few seconds, feeling Frank become relaxed next to him. Then, he started his real show. He breathed in deep and clenched his hands and whole body, makings sure Frank could feel the changes of his body. He made a few chocking noises and was surprised to see Frank still silent. Usually people asked if he was okay at this point, even though he had warned them to stay silent. He continued to choke out and clench his hands, spitting out a few words as he felt Frank become tense next to him.

"What...do..you...want?"

He asked, with as much force as he could throw in his voice, his eyes closed and his voices choked up. He felt Frank's breathing speed up immediately. It was working.

"What do you...want?!"

He asked with more force and then cried out a few times, feeling the fish bones with his free hand. He opened his eyes and took a deep breath in, ripping his hand away from Frank. But this time it wasn't because he was acting. He'd seen something. He jumped away from the table in fear.

Andy, in all his years in this job, had never actually glimpsed something scary or even close to real. Not until now. Because he could have sworn he saw a dark figure standing at the end of a hallway, in his mind's eye. A figure with red skin and black eyes. He jumped away from the table and looked around him. This wasn't normal, this wasn't supposed to happen, he never saw anything. He looked at Frank and only just realised he was talking and asking Andy if he was okay. Andy knew only one thing. He needed to get out of there.

"You're in serious danger, kid. This thing is—you need to get out of here."

He spoke in a chocked voice and then he grabbed his stuff as quickly as he could while Frank protested and asked for more information. Andy packed up all his things and then walked away and left as quickly as possible, not even bothering to get his money.

To say Frank was scared would be an understatement. Andy had left so quickly, he'd been gone in the blink of an eye. He barely stayed five minutes. And what, about the ghost being dangerous and wanting to possibly hurt Frank? What the hell was Frank going to do? He could not leave, he had just moved in and he had absolutely no money to afford going off to another place. Telling his parents? No way. They'd send him to the loony bin. His friends already had enough on their backs, let's not even mention that Ray didn't believe him. How did he know anyone would? 

Frank went to sleep that night, but he didn't actually get a wink of sleep. He would pop awake whenever there was a loud noise in the house and get really and get really angry. Was he really going to let this ghost shove him out of his own house? Of-fucking-course not! He was an Iero, Ieros didn't give up or forfeit. He was going to get rid of this ghost. No matter what it took.


	3. Patrick Has A Heart Attack and Josh and Tyler Make Their Short Appearance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this is pretty short and for that I apologise. Holidays are so close now, I'll probably be able to write more then :) 
> 
> Tell me if you like it please, I live off feedback.

Frank called a priest and his assistant the very next day. They were famous throughout New Jersey for their exorcism skills. Apparently, the priest, Joshua Dun, was the one that performed the ritual. While his helper, Tyler Joseph, had the gift of seeing the ghosts, and therefore told Dun where they were.

They had been banned from the church after rumours went around that they fucked each other. There was no proof of this event actually happening, but the church wasn't very lenient. They went around the country now as some weird form of ghost busters. Frank had gotten their number from his highly religious grandmother who, very surprisingly, believed in ghosts. Frank did too, that was why he kept the number for years. And now he finally had a use for it. Frank hadn't had much experience with priest, very surprisingly since his family was heavily religious, but he did know how to address them. Call them 'Father' and all of that. Whenever he went to church he would have to greet the fathers there when he walked in but other than that he avoided talking to them, basically because Frank was never a full on believer. For a small portion of his life he believed it, because his parents believed it, but after he started growing up and forming opinions of his own it became hard to believe in something based simply on someone else's faith. So Frank had told his parents that he was atheist and after that he didn't go to church with them. They struggled a little to cope with the thought of their only son not following their religion but they didn't attempt to continue to force it down his throat like Frank thought they would. They had much more trouble dealing with his being gay, however. Since Frank was a kid, he was told repeatedly what exactly he was going to do with his life. He was going to study hard, go to college, become a doctor or something equally as generic and well paying, and then marry a woman and later take over the world with his offsprings. Frank didn't hate his parents for wanting that for him, he just hoped they didn't hate him too much when he didn't do most of that. Frank did study hard and he did go to college but the next thing he did was become a photographer. A not very well payed photographer. He had a studio in the city that he payed for by selling his works on the internet. He'd needed his parent's help to keep his afloat many times when his works didn't sell as well as he hoped. 

But anyway, it didn't cost much to get these guys in and it definitely was worth it if there was a ghost trying to make a dress of Frank's intestines or whatever. So Frank called them up and they arrived just on Sunday, both of them waving at him, very non-priest like, when he opened the door. The one Frank guessed was Father Dun was wearing a clerical collar and all black. Mr Joseph was wearing all black as well but he wasn't wearing a collar, as he wasn't a priest.

"Mr Iero? You said you had a ghost problem?"

Frank felt like this was Mr Hurley all over again. He lead them inside and sat them down, giving them coffee and telling them about the troublesome ghost.

"Ah, it seems demonic forces have taken over your house, Mr Iero. We must rid of them immediately, with our Lord by our side."

Father Dun said and Mr Joseph just nodded along to everything Joshua said as if he himself was the almighty. Frank couldn't help but notice the looks they shared when they thought he wasn't looking. They set up their act, grabbing incense and a bible. Father Dun turned to Tyler after he was ready.

"Lead me, Mr Joseph."

They both walked slowly and paused every few feet, while Tyler shut his eyes and 'let the spirits guide him'. They stopped at the living room, which Frank just raised an eyebrow at, when Tyler suddenly screamed like a little baby, making both Frank and the Father jump in surprise.

"There, there Father! Oh, right there!"

To be honest, it sounded quite sexual. Gerard heard the noise from the basement and decided, against better judgement, to go investigate what the hell was happening. The scene he walked in on was quite the surprise.   
Father Dun was tossing holy water in the direction Mr Joseph was pointing and screaming at. Mr Dun was screaming 'the power of Christ compels you!' over and over again while Frank widened his eyes at the whole event. At some point, Tyler closed his eyes and put his hands over them and looked away, as if the scene was way too gruesome to witness. Frank was standing a few meters away from them, staring at the event. Gerard himself went to stand behind the two men.  
Frank looked around. Of course they weren't real exorcists. They were as fake as his grandmother's teeth and his mother's nails. Frank kind of beat himself up for even starting to believe it. He knew the ghost was real, of course he did, he'd seen it. Speaking of seeing the ghost.  
The temperature suddenly changed as Gerard walked in. A chill ran up and down Frank's spine and his teeth chattered momentarily, goosebumps blossoming on his skin. Frank's eyes darted around the room. And for just a second, a split second, just like when the lightning had struck, he swore he saw him. Standing right there, behind father Dun and Mr Joseph. The noise faded into the background as Frank gaped at the ghost but as soon as he had seen him, he was gone. Frank's patience started to run thin. Anger bloomed inside him like red thorns and his breathing was suddenly hard to control. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He was so tired of this! Why couldn't he just find out what the actual fuck was going on. And if that stupid ghost wanted to kill him so much, why the fuck wasn't it doing anything!   
His eyes darted to the two men that were now finished 'getting rid of the ghost' and were talking happily to each other, as if celebrating their achievement. Frank thought to himself for just a second, were these guys scammers, did they act out the whole thing? Or were they just plain crazy? He cleared his throat and spoke, his anger evident in his voice. He was so done with this situation.

"It was standing right behind you! Didn't you see?"

Father Dun scoffed at him and spoke to him as if he was a child, walking closer and placing a hand on Frank's shoulder. This response did nothing to help with Frank's anger. 

"Don't be silly, son! We got rid of it, God has saved you!"

Mr Joseph snickered rudely from behind Father Dun's back and Frank seethed with anger. He controlled himself just barely to tell them a fake thank you and ask them nicely to leave. He couldn't believe he'd payed for this bullshit!   
When Mr Joseph and Father Dun had left, Frank placed his fist on the closed door. He has started to feel the cold again. He sneered. He might have held his anger in for the father and his fake 'ghost seer' but he wouldn't hold it off for a ghost that was making his life twice as difficult as it was before he moved in.

"Why the fuck are you doing this, aye? Can you not just fucking leave me alone?"

Frank's raised voice was greeted with silence, just as he expected. For some reason, it only put fuel to the fire and Frank found himself screaming at nothing, spit flying from his mouth and his face red.

"Screw you! Just fucking leave, no one wants you here! You're fucking dead, why don't you act like it, you prick!"

Gerard heard it all. He couldn't respond, obviously, but he sure as hell heard it. And he found himself feeling surprisingly sad. Why was he so upset about this? Did Frank's words really mean that much to him? Gerard didn't know what to think. Maybe it was because those words were so familiar to him. He had been told on a regular basis during High School that no one wanted him and that he should go die. Gerard didn't expect that the words still hurt, even after he was dead. But they did. And suddenly everything that he'd seen and experienced in High School was coming back to him. The game of 'throw Gerard in the pond and dunk him 'till he can't breathe' that they'd played on him and how his lungs had screamed and ached for air. How he'd passed out and woken up with Mikey above him, on the soggy ground. How they'd drag him away from the school and throw him in a old locker in the abandoned part of the school the government had yet to knock down. How they'd locked him in there and left him. How it took six hours for them to come back. How the darkness had been so uninviting and scary. How they'd opened the locker to get him out and noticed he'd peed his pants, shoved him around some. How they'd grabbed his notebook and ripped it to pieces, how they'd lifted him by his hair and cut it all off. How they'd trip him and beat him and call him worthless and how they never failed to remind him that no one would miss him if he was gone. And it got Gerard thinking. He was dead now, did anyone miss him? Did Mikey miss him? Surely not, he'd been nothing but a burden all these years. Did his parents miss him? Last time he'd seen them they'd called him a disappointment.  
Long story short, it wasn't just Frank's words that made Gerard sit on the floor and cry. It was a combination of everything Gerard had undergone through the years. And somehow, miraculously, Frank thought he heard something. Maybe God had decided that it was time for Frank to lose his false impression of Gerard, because Frank heard him. He didn't see him, or touch him or anything. But he heard the small whimpers and the heart clenching sobs. And his face softened. His heart pattered inside his chest and his face became its normal colour again. Maybe... Maybe this wasn't the right ghost? Maybe Mr Hurley had seen the wrong one? Hell, maybe Andy had been fake as well. Frank didn't want to think about it. So he just let himself whisper a soft spoken 'sorry' into the air, and hope that whatever it was that was crying because of him would be okay. And then he left.   
Inside the walls of the house, another entity crawled, licking its lips deviously, waiting for the moment to strike. At least that's what it would usually be doing. But today, it was angry. Because just as much as Gerard had heard Frank's words, it had as well. And all the sadness that Gerard felt was replaced in this being with anger. The need to hurt this human was overwhelming the being. And it knew it was almost time to strike. It needed to talk to Gerard, first, however. It needed Gerard on its side. Whether by force or not.

Frank walked to Pete's house as soon as he left. He needed to talk to someone that was not Ray. Ray hadn't called him since the record shop incident and Frank felt maybe he was angry at him for believing in the ghost. Frank was wrong, Ray had been spending the days since he hadn't seen Frank staring dreamily into a wall and thinking of Mikey Way, but that's irrelevant right now.  
Frank knocked on Pete's door, hearing footsteps from inside almost immediately. It wasn't a surprise for Frank, Pete never did anything but scroll through tumblr all day. Soon enough, his dyed-blonde whore of a friend opened the door and smiled at him cheekily.

"Hey, dude! What's —"

Frank cut him off, letting himself inside as he started to talk, not letting Pete get a word in as he narrated his story.

"There's a ghost living—well not really living but you know what I mean—in my home and I know because I thought something was up so I bought a ouija board,"

Pete snickered, but he shut up when Frank shot him a deadly look.

"So I kinda tried calling to the ghost and then a thunderstorm started and I saw a figure while lightning struck so I told Ray but he doesn't believe me. I called up this guy called Andy Hurley who is apparently a psychic and he came over and told me that the ghost wanted to hurt me. So I called two exorcists who weren't really exorcists and did absolutely nothing to help my situation and I got really angry at them and started shouting once they left and I think I kinda hurt the ghost because I thought someone was crying as I left and now I don't know what to believe or what to do."

Frank ended, taking deep breaths in and trying to get his lungs to feel full again. Pete was staring at him blankly for a few seconds and Frank got a little scared. If Pete didn't believe him and refused to help Frank would have to call Ray. He would call Ray anyway, he decided, but he really needed support from Pete too. Thankfully, Pete gasped a few seconds later, as if the information had just sunk in, and started jumping around.

"Oh my God, that's so fucking cool! One sec—I gotta tell Pat, he's here!"

Pete ran off to the dining room, and Frank followed him, taking a less 'running and jumping' approach. In the dining room, Patrick was having his meal, smiling happily at his plate. He did, however, lose all hint of happiness when Pete informed him of what was going on. He did, actually, choke on his fettuccine.

"A ghost?! What the—What do you mean you want to summon it, have you gone mad Pete?!"

He shouted, but his worries fell on deaf ears. Pete had already called Ray and told him to meet them at his house immediately. Ray was apparently on his way. 

"Patrick, I know it sounds crazy. But I need to do something about this, I'm not going to let this ghost scare me out of my own house!"

Frank piped up, shutting up both Pete and Patrick. Patrick looked seriously on the verge of a panic attack so Frank decided to not stare at him burningly. Pete was already in on it, you could tell by the look on his face. So Frank didn't need to stare anyone down to force them to join him. Just as Patrick looked like he was about to shit his pants, the bell rang and Frank ran over to open it. Ray pounced on him the moment the door was open.

"You called another fucking psychic?!"

He shouted, grabbing Frank's shoulders with a desperate look on his face.

"Wait, woah, woah! 'Another'? What do you mean? And where the fuck have you been?!"

Ray blushed for a second, letting go of Frank's shoulders. He fumbled with his own hands, looking down and kicking the ground with his left foot.

"I didn't call you?"

Frank shook his head 'no' with raised eyebrows, putting his hands across his chest. Ray looked up, still awkward as fuck. He hadn't realised he'd forgotten to call Frank. He'd just been so caught up in Mikey. Pete and Patrick walked in the room, staring at the both of them.

"Well, are you going to tell me where the fuck you were?"

Frank spoke up again, letting his hands fall to his side with a mildly annoyed look on his face. What kind of friend leaves for a few days and doesn't bother to call? Ray cleared his throat.

"I was with this guy—"

Frank, Patrick and Pete immediately started shouting questions about this guy toward Ray, but Ray didn't answer, he just raised his voice and continued, shutting them up.

"Hey! It doesn't matter right now! I called a friend of mine," he paused and looked at Frank, with a pointed look.   
"A REAL psychic. He'll be here tomorrow. And THEN, we can find out what the fuck is happening with this ghost of yours."

Pete, Patrick and Frank all nodded along to that statement, agreeing. Before silence fell for a little while and Frank smirked at Ray.

"So, this guy—"

"No! Absolutely not am I talking about this with you. All you need to know right now is that his name is Mikey and he's the coolest ever."

Ray sighed with a dreamy look on his face and Pete made a barfing noise in a successful attempt to make Patrick laugh. Frank grinned at Ray, who had gone red again, and led him inside, getting him some coffee.

When Frank left and went home it was night. Pete had offered him a bed in case he didn't want to return home, but Frank had stubbornly refused. His pride was going to kill him one day.   
Sunday nights were the worst, in his opinion. He'd have to deal with all his friends being at their jobs tomorrow. He, being self employed, technically worked everyday and had no days off, but it rarely felt like that. He could just snap any pictures he wanted and then he'd sell them and he'd be fine. That was how it had been for the past few years. His pictures always seemed to miraculously sell very well, whether it be by private buyers or magazines. So he never had to borrow much money from his parents. When he was getting started he did, but that period of time went past.  
He entered his home and locked the door behind him, putting out his cigarette in the little ashtray on the table by the door. He took off his coat and hung it up, taking a step to walk down the hall way, when he was stopped. There was a dark figure down the hallway, just staring at him. He couldn't tell who or what it was, but it was definitely a figure of a person. Or better yet, a ghost. Frank didn't think it was a robber. It couldn't be, they wouldn't just be staring at him, just standing there. So he assumed, of course, that it was the ghost that he had seen before. Frank took a few foolish steps forwards.

"Is that you?"

He asked stupidly in the air, feeling the atmosphere around him tense and cold. He had no idea that that ghost was not Gerard. He had no idea there even WAS another ghost other than Gerard. He didn't even know the ghost's name was Gerard.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you before. I was angry."

He said, hoping it would do something to help his cause. But also because he did feel very guilty. The cries of the ghost, as he assumed, were very pain filled. And his brain had been playing them on repeat for a while. Maybe if the ghost he was speaking to was Gerard, this would have ended up better than it did now.   
The ghost did not respond, like Frank hoped it would, but it instead floated closer and closer to him. Frank started to take cautious steps away from the ghost, feeling nervousness bubble up inside him. He didn't have much time to ponder it however, because the ghost suddenly leapt at him in a dash of black and Frank screamed and shut his eyes, feeling this chill go through him and falling back onto his back. When he did open his eyes, the ghost was gone and he felt sudden pain bubbling up inside him and on his back. He dashed up, ignoring the pain in his back and ran to the bathroom, throwing up all the pizza he'd had at Pete's. He wheezed over the toilet bowl for a few minutes, eyes closed and hand against his back, rubbing it to take the pain away. When he opened his eyes and looked down into the toilet bowl, he was very surprised to see that he hadn't thrown up the pizza at all. In fact, with all that colour inside the toilet bowl, you would have thought he swallowed red crayons. He hadn't seen this much blood for a long time.


	4. Ryan is scary, okay?

Gerard had gotten quite upset over what that stupid man had said to him. He didn't know anything! He didn't know what Gerard had gone through, what the fuck gave him the right—  
Gerard caught himself. This was all so very unlike him. He never cursed, he never thought bad thoughts about anyone! Not even the bullies that tormented him all the way through high school. Or the parents that called him a disappointment. He never wished bad things on anyone. Never gave them bad nicknames, or called them names in his head, let alone out loud. He was very confused about what this death he was experiencing was doing to him.  
He didn't have much longer to ponder about it though. Because just as Frank had plans, so did the other entity that roamed this house. Gerard heard a bump in the basement, feeling scared momentarily. Then he realised; he was already dead. What the hell could hurt him at this point? That was a bad bad thought to have at that moment. He didn't have much time to ponder what the fuck was going on, actually. Because, just as it had to Frank that very night, a ghost pounced on Gerard as quick as lightning. Gerard screeched as he fell onto his back, feeling the weight of someone pressed on top of him. They seemed way too realistic to be a ghost, not see-through or anything. But then again, neither was Gerard.   
He found himself faced with blood red eyes. His heart was pounding so quickly, he felt he might pass out any second. He cried out, squirming in an attempt to get away from the ghost. He had been vaguely aware of the ghost's presence for a while now, but he never looked into it, convinced that it was a game his mind was playing. 

"What the hell?!"

"Exactly."

A haughty voice answered him, devilish and naughty. This was no ordinary ghost, Gerard realised. He'd felt that presence around him for a long while. It woke up when Frank first moved in, the sound of a beating human heart making its sinister eyes pop open. Gerard felt it, deep inside him. The nag at the back of his brain, telling him something was here, something bad was about to begin. When Frank had come home and throw up all that blood Gerard was suddenly sure of that nagging presence. Suddenly, a thought hit him.

"Oh, my God, it was you! You were the one that made Frank throw up."

Gerard was quite surprised at himself. That was the first thing he brought up? Frank? I mean, he was very interconnected with everything that was happening right now but wouldn't it have been more reasonable to ask 'what do you want' or 'what are you doing'? His sudden worry for the human and the need to find out why this thing was trying to hurt him made Gee feel scared. Had he grown attached to him? No way! After those mean words Frank shot his way he wasn't sure how he felt about him. At first he wanted him to go away. After, he had tried himself to make Frank leave. Then, as much as he hated to admit it, he had started growing fond of Frank, especially when Frank stopped bringing men home. After the events with the fake mediums and exorcists, Gerard found himself bonding in a very strange way to Frank. And then the human had gone and thrown it all back to his face with his horrible words. The fact that all those things Frank said brought Gerard to tears made him feel vulnerable. It made him feel weak. Why was he letting this guy get to him like this? 

"Yeah, okay, now that you figured that out, Captain Obvious,"

Gerard furrowed his eyebrows, feeling obviously offended. No pun intended, by the way. He was about to speak when the ghost, or whatever the fuck this red-eyed motherfucker was, spoke again, its voice strangely calm and collected, as if it were simply telling Gerard that the weather was nice.

"I won't tell you a lot just yet, I'll have you know. But I just want you to know that you should be expecting many many visits from me in the future. I thought it was time to make my presence known to you."

Gerard os suddenly very fucking scared. Why did this thing want to talk to him? Why did it need him, intend to visit him? His brain was a fuzzy mess filled with questions upon questions, but absolutely no answers. He felt the body on top of his shift a little, maybe getting ready to dark away. The small sense of feeling that he still held in his finger tips even after death disappeared suddenly at the thought and realisation of what was happening. He couldn't breath, at all. And for once in his life, it wasn't because of a panic attack that was snatching greedily at his lungs with its vicious claws. His eyes went hazy and he lost focus, but from within the mess of it all he realised that two hands were ghosting patterns over his chest and the figure had in fact moved. He was straddled now, two hands over his breast plates as he heard soft muttering in a foreign language. His chest heaved and he spluttered, grabbing at his throat with his own hands and trying to make the feeling go away, the feeling of being breathless. Gerard didn't breathe anymore, as a ghost, but this breathlessness made it feel as though every human feeling had flooded back into his body and all the nerves he hadn't used since his death were back in order. He didn't have time to ponder what the hell had just happened before it all stopped, so abruptly. He coughed, just as he would if he was still human, but his lungs no longer ached for air just like they had seconds before. Gerard barely needed time to recover before he was speaking, seeing the smug look in the other creature's eyes.

"What the hell did you do to me?"

He asked, shocked and scared, his left hand pushing the creature off him and pulling at the floor as he scooted back into a corner. His right hand was grabbing at his throat, shocked at the feeling that had been there, but left so quickly. The creature—ghost,whatever it was—did not look alarmed at his reaction or at his push back. It simply stood up, its shadow almost seeming to morph with the creature's body because of the same blackness that ruled them both, and smirked at Gerard again.

"I gave you a taste of what I can offer."

"Suffocation?!"

Gerard asked, shocked, but the other ghost simply held the ghost of a sinister smile on its lips as it inched closer to Gerard, who still had his fingers to his throat in shock.

"No, silly! I can give you life again. Human feeling."

It spoke as if what it said was no big deal. Gerard gaped and gasped, not believing it for a second. Or did he? He wanted to believe it, he wanted it so much. But who was he to deserve life again. There had to be a catch.

"You can have that, Gerard. If only you help me. And if you don't,"

It kneeled before him, putting its dark fingers to Gerard's chin and lifting it up, making sure Gerard was looking right in its eyes, his own filling with fear, awe.

"I will make sure you regret it. Don't think I won't. The feeling of chocking to death is not pretty. You got the easy way out; bullet to the head. Don't think that I can't kill you because you're a ghost, Gerard. I'm far too powerful to let silly things like lost souls stop me."

Gerard felt fear grip into him like never before. It clutched at his insides and pulled and Gerard felt like throwing up, if only there was anything in his stomach to bring back up. The ghost was not done talking it seemed, because it pulled away from him and continued to babble, getting further and further away from him as it did so.

"You will help me. And you won't tell the human anything."

And then with a puff of dramatic black smoke, it was gone. And Gerard was left to huddle in the corner and think about what the actual fuck he had gotten himself into.

**

Ryan arrived the next day, on Monday. He kind of contemplated why the hell he was doing this for a while. While the train picked him up and got ready to drop him off in multiple destinations before they reached New Jersey. He had plenty of time to ponder why the hell he had been drawn to this case since Ray suggested it. Two days and a bit more. He'd left almost right after Ray had called him, trying to make it there as soon as possible. He really didn't want to be doing this. He wanted to stay home with his beautiful boyfriend and do shit but suck each others' cocks. But something about this smelled fishy to him, even from states away. He had stopped doing this for a reason. For many reasons in fact. The dangers that came along with it. The nut jobs who thought something was up but there actually wasn't. The travelling. The list went on and on. He refused to admit to himself that he was a little bit curious to find out which category this Frank dude fell under. He already knew the travelling one was covered, he grumbled to himself at the thought, and he also knew that Ray hoped with all his heart his friend was clinically insane. What had happened that had led Ray to feel this way? He would find out soon enough. But of course, Ryan did not let himself be convinced that something had actually sparked his interest so he told himself that he was a great fucking friend. Brendon had gotten mad at him for this. They'd had a fight, which is pretty common actually, but not usually like this, not for something serious. Not for things like Ryan putting himself in danger and being too much of a pushover to back out and just say no. In Brendon's words, at least, that's what was happening right now. Ryan had been pushed into this by his friend, who Brendon was quite convinced was a tiny Satan. Ryan had tried to argue that Ray is not so tiny, he's like a fucking 6 foot 1 inch giant, buy Brendon wouldn't hear any of it. He told Ryan to take things seriously, for once. Ryan got mad at that. He took things seriously! He sure as hell did, he had many examples to prove it. He didn't admit to himself that he couldn't list any.

He made it to Frank's house, where he had been told to go to immediately, and already he realised what was happening. There sure as fuck were entities in this house. He could sense two. One of them was a very subtle taste in his mouth, a little nag at the back of his head, a shy little whisper. It felt like a little kid tugging at his pant leg while he tried to watch a performance. But of that ghost was the little kid, the performer was definitely the other entity. It wasted no time being silent, not anymore, as far as Ryan guessed, and it shouted right at his face to come and get it as if it had nothing to fear. This arrogant attitude was what made Ryan's head whirl with worry. Usually when a ghost, or whatever, had gotten this attention seeking and was no longer trying to hide itself, it meant business. Which was a very scary thought for him. He had wished that this was nothing but Frank putting too much pressure on himself and slowly deteriorating in a pool of shit-ass-crazy. This was clearly not the case, he could tell this much.

Ryan raised his fist at the door of the house. It was a very nice looking house, it was a wonder that it was so cheap, Frank had thought when he went to buy it. Of course, he didn't know that the three-bedroom-two-bathroom-two-storey house's corridor had been painted with an innocent man's blood.

There were footsteps from inside, way too excited. It sounded like a gazelle bounding toward fresh grass. Ray had warned Ryan that Frank could get a little too much sometimes. The door swung open to reveal a short man, much shorter than Ryan, and he had multiple piercings, tattoos and obviously a very large smile on his face. Ryan got the eternally-happy-with-fucking-everything vibe off him, and he didn't even need to be a psychic to see that.

"Ryan Ross, psychic extraordinaire, blah blah blah. You must be Frank Iero?"

Ryan offered his hand and Frank shook it with both of his vividly, making Ryan feel like his arm was about to pop out of its socket. Ryan didn't really like overexcited people unless they were his boyfriend, Brendon. This guy would give Brendon some competition in the happiness department. 

"Yep, that's me! I'm so glad you're here! I'm also very glad you said my last name right, no one ever does that, man!"

Frank spoke, excitement dripping through every cell and single bone in his body. He let Ryan in and watched carefully as Ryan immediately reacted to the strong scent of dead man that was floating around the house. Yep, definitely spirits. That's a spirit, if he ever knew one.

"So I hear you have a ghost problem, or something?"

Ryan said, feigning innocence. Frank led him into the living room while he spoke.

"Yeah, whole load of shit, man, I'll explain."

That was the only sentence that Ryan had heard Frank utter that wasn't so sickly filled and overflowing with enthusiasm and happiness and rainbows or whatever. Ryan lost track of thought when he saw Ray in the living room, siting beside two guys, one with slightly dark skin and one wearing a fedora.

"Ryan! It's been a while!"

Ray stood up and hugged him, laughing giddily in Ryan's ear. Ryan didn't laugh but he did smile and that was an achievement in it self. Ryan was either way too shy or just a plain sarcastic asshole. He tended to go for the latter when he was working, like now. Thankfully, Ray understood. Ryan felt bad when he thought of how he would have to break the news to him that his friend is currently rooming with—not one—but two ghosts. One of which may just want to kill him.

Ryan said his hellos and was introduced to Pete and Patrick. Pete seemed like the type to hang with Frank, if you get what I mean. Patrick was more of the silent worrying father who stuck along because he didn't want his children to do something stupid and get hurt. Ryan decided he liked them, they were okay. Pete was a little obnoxious with his energy levels but Ryan lived with goddamn Brendon Urie who liked to strut around the house naked while preening his feathers, or whatever. Not that Ryan complained at all. Point is, he could deal with obnoxious.

"So what happened with this ghost?"

Frank started immediately as soon as the question was asked, serving Ryan coffee as he did so and then sitting down on the couch between Ray and Pete.

"Well, at first I didn't see anything, you know? Just weird things happening, things ending up where I hadn't left them. But I just dismissed that. Until I started getting messages telling me to go away. Then I bought a—um—a ouija board?"

Frank asked jokingly, an awkward laugh leaving him as Ryan had to refrain from rolling his eyes. Of course he bought a fucking ouija board. He let Frank go on.

"And then I didn't think it would work and just as I had given up, I heard a voice say something. And I looked up and there was no one there. Until lightning struck and I actually SAW something—someone,"

Ryan leaned forward in his chair. This was getting kinda interesting. Frank sighed and continued, pulling his phone out as he did.

"Then the day after I get this drawing,"

He showed Ryan a picture on his phone of a bloodied drawing of himself. Ryan grabbed the phone and looked at it curiously. This spirit was making lame-ass attempts to scare Frank.

"And after that I called a psychic who told me this spirit was trying to kill me—"

Ryan kinda scoffed in his head. This was clearly not the same spirit. Based on what he was being told, and what he'd sensed, the ghost that seemed like a threat to Frank was not the same one doing this, ghosts that were violent did not do this, drawings and writing on walls. The other ghost was trying to make Frank leave but clearly did not have enough will power to make him or herself do something really scary. It was not a violent ghost.

"And then some priests that turned out to do shit. I saw the ghost again when the priests were here but he just disappeared, once again. And then some crazy shit figure lunged at the yesterday, it was too dark to see, and I threw up buckets of blood. That's it."

Ryan stayed silent for a long time as the others looked at him expectantly. Ryan added the information up in his brain. He needed to summon either of the ghosts. The non-violent one would be better. He would confront either ghost about making Frank throw up. Then he would find out what either of them had to say about it. He was going to talk to either of those things. Today. He needed to do it with Frank, alone. Ray interrupted.

"So, what do you think? Should I call someone to pick Frank up and take him to the loony bin?"

He was joking, obviously, but Ryan heard an underlay of hoping in his voice. He was ignoring all the information that pointed otherwise, but he still had hope that this was nothing but a silly mistake. Ryan was about to shatter all his hopes.

"I'm sorry Ray, but there definitely is a ghost here. And not just one, but two of them."

Ray put his face in his palms and sighed while Frank looked victorious. He knew he wasn't crazy. Pete looked plain excited and was shaking and pulling on Patrick's arm, who looked a little like he'd just shit his pants.

"Although, I'm not sure if both of them are ghosts. They are both definitely supernatural. And one of them is violent, while the other isn't."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

Ray asked. Frank nodded along and Pete bit his lip and clung onto Patrick, digging his blunt nails in his best friend's shoulder.

"I'm going to have to call Brendon and say I'm not coming back for a while. And then Frank and I are going to summon this ghost. Hopefully, not the one that wants to kill Frank."

Pete was very highly disappointed he would have to go home.

Patrick wasn't.

**

Frank was seriously not prepared for this. But then again, he had not been prepared for anything that had happened to him since he moved into this house. Frank tried not to let on how terrified he was. Sure, he was interested in finding out about the ghost—because God damn who the fuck had ever seen a ghost?!—and he acted all excited and happy about this but even though he helo much interest in the matter, he didn't want to show that really, he was very very scared. For himself, for his friends. Up until he moved in, there was no higher power than humans. Nothing more intelligent, nothing with powers that could beat a human easily. The notion of beings that absolutely had the power to destroy him—and it wouldn't even be that hard—made him look behind his shoulder. As it should to anyone. He had gone batshit crazy when his cousin told him he wished aliens would come to earth. 'What if they were smarter than us?' He had said. 'What if they were stronger, and more agile and they wanted to kill us all and take over?'. The idea of power and just how unprepared humans were to the notion that there was something out there that was more powerful and smarter than them made Frank shiver. This was like a literal nightmare for him. Especially since he had found out one of the ghosts wanted to harm him, just like he was afraid of. He hadn't been too scared in the beginning, simply because it seemed like the ghost was friendly. It made him a drawing, for God's sake. Maybe he had ignored its messages of 'go away' but it never did anything to him when he did. He was suddenly very scared that the ghost that he had been communicating with really was the one that wanted to kill him. It would seem like it, logic would suggest it. But Frank didn't want to believe it. Not after he'd heard the ghost cry. He just didn't want it to be a killer. But the simple truth was that he wasn't in control of that. He wasn't in control of this situation at all. As previously stated, that was what scared the shit outta him.

"Okay, I'm really sorry Frank but I'm going to have to draw on your floor with goat's blood."

Ryan didn't seem particularly sorry and Frank really couldn't give two shits. He'd clean it up later. All he wanted to know right now was what was going on with these ghosts.

"Okay, there we go, we're ready."

Ryan dusted off his palms on his skinny jeans and then crossed his arms, stepping back and staring at the circle of goat's blood he had drawn on the floor boards. It was quite a large circle, with a few intricate patterns and designs around it, but none inside it. Frank marvelled at it, but decided not to ask Ryan about it. Ryan grabbed a wooden bowl and threw a few things in it, more blood, something that looked like a wishbone and some things Frank had never seen before in his life. He then grabbed greens off a plant he had with him nearby and left the bowl on the floor, holding the greens in his right hand, right over the mixture he had just made. He whispered something under his breath and then dropped the plants, which fell like rocks and landed inside the bowl. Sparks flew around it and Frank flinched and jumped back a little, watching Ryan intently as he looked in the circle. And suddenly the air got colder. The lights flickered. And the ghost was there. The one Frank had seen. The pretty one with the black hair and the chubby cheeks. The hazel eyes. It was him. He was breathing heavily and it seemed like he was attempting to get away. But he was stuck in the circle. Not a word or sound left his plump lips. Ryan was surprisingly calm about this, and asked the ghost a casual question.

"What's your name?"

The ghost stared at him, just as surprised as Frank, like he was crazy.

"What the hell do you—"

"What is your name!"

Ryan did not shout but he had a force in his voice that made both the ghost and Frank flinch back. The ghost fumbled with his words, clearly now more aware of Ryan's power and not wanting to anger him, even though Ryan did not look mad or even remotely frustrated.

"Gerard! Gerard Way, okay?"

Gerard shouted, his breathing even louder and more severe now, laboured. He struggled to draw breathes and Frank himself was breathless. He didn't know why. Gerard was on the brink of crying and begging them to let him go. He knew one of them was Frank. The other one was clearly a medium but he didn't know him. Before Gerard could lose it, Ryan spoke up, equally as demanding as he was before.

"What did you do to Frank? I suggest you answer, for your own sake."

Frank got a little scared. He didn't want Ryan to really hurt Gerard, he was hoping he was bluffing. But the look on his face did not give away a bluff. And Gerard obviously saw that too, because from that moment on, he answered to all of Ryan's questions.

"I didn't do anything to him!"

"Well then what did!"

Ryan showed emotion and it was not pretty. Anger with a tinge of desperation, a look that showed Gerard he was not scared to do bad things to get to his goal. Frank was disturbed by this turn of events. Ryan looked dangerous. Frank momentarily regretted letting him come over.

"What did, Gerard!"

Ryan asked again, with more pressure in his voice. He didn't see Gerard slowly deteriorating before his eyes. Not in the literal sense. Gerard was falling apart. Frank could see that. He was cracking and tears were welling up in his eyes as he struggled to hold his swelling panic inside him. His fight with his on coming panic attack was working, but only for now. Gerard was quite proud of himself, however. He would never have kept his cool so long in a confrontational situation while he was still alive. Death helped a man along, he guessed. He answered Ryan.

"I—I can't say! It'll h-hurt me!"

He stuttered, cursing his voice for betraying his feelings. Although his appearance probably did as well. He was disheveled, his hair a mess, his eyes red. He couldn't hold on for very long before ehe passed out or something. Or screamed. Ryan felt his power over the ghost fading. Gerard's strong emotions were breaking Ryan's connection.

"Tell me, Gerard!"

"I can't, I can't! I'm sorry."

Tears ran down his face and before Ryan knew it, the reigns slipped from his grasp and he blacked out, while the bulbs in the house popped and Gerard disappeared, getting as far away from them as he could while he was stuck in the same goddamn house as them.

**

When Ryan woke up, he left and went to sleep at Ray's. He said he would be staying there while he helped Frank. He gave him a talisman that would protect him for now and told him there was no reason to leave the house just yet. If there was any more trouble though, he said, Frank would need to stay over at a friend's.

Frank himself was not that scared anymore. Which he knew was foolish as he hadn't met the ghost that wanted to actually hurt him. But a protective sense had grown inside him toward Gerard, the shy, cowardly ghost, and he felt like he wanted to just get rid of the ghost that was causing both him and Gerard grief. Frank shook his head at the thought he had after. He never even considered getting rid of Gerard. What was he thinking?! His brain had automatically just went 'well we'll get rid of the other ghost and then Gerard and I will be okay' as if they were fucking flat mates or something. He shook his head again and pulled his laptop out toward him where he sat on his bed, opening it and logging in. It was time to stalk his little ghost flat mate. He brought up google(because let's face it, who even uses fucking bing or explorer, what the fuck) and typed the name Gerard Way. A surprising amount of results came up, but before he checked them out, he looked in google images. There was Gerard, looking; well, alive. There weren't many pictures of him at all, only through car windows and Frank read that the cause to that was the fact that Gerard never left his home. He had severe anxiety and panic attacks were frequent for him. Frank also read about his comic book career. He reminded himself to pick up a copy of the comic next time he could. But he got really interested at the news article that said Gerard was murdered; inside his own home. The agent that showed Frank the house had lied. Gerard was the previous owner of the house Frank currently lived in, until two thieves came in and shot him in the head. But the how come Gerard's ghost was here? It said in the article his body had been cremated. Was he holding on to something, an object maybe? Frank had seen that on Supernatural. Or maybe he had unfinished business. Whatever it was, something was holding Gerard back, keeping him half alive. Frank just needed to find out what the hell that was, and maybe he could put Gerard out of his misery.

**

Gerard cried a lot. He had gotten used to doing that, what with all that was going on. Gerard hated those situations where he was confronted about something, he always shit his pants when teachers asked him to walk to the board in school and answer questions in front of his whole class. He was smart, he always got them right, but it never ceased to make him shiver inside his own shoes. Gerard had gotten used to feeling pathetic like that. Feeling helpless and sacred because for as long as he knew, he never could really face himself, face his problems, could never deal with them. This was his coping mechanism. A shitty one, granted, but it had been his way of dealing with things for so long that he didn't know what else to do.

Suddenly, he felt a rush. A cold breeze, a shiver up his spine. He knew what was coming. He looked up from his knees. The being didn't bother to give an introduction this time, and rather just launched into a speech as Gee scooted away on his bum.

"This is the part where you come in. I've done my part, now you will scare him, properly,"

Gerard immediately shook his head, his mouth hanging open. No, no, he simply couldn't!

"Do you want him to go, or not?" Gerard nodded shyly. He wasn't really sure if he did anymore. He did want this ghost thing to go away, however. "Good. Then you'll scare him and he'll go away. I'll teach you how to make yourself seen at will. Do not abuse you gift that I'm giving you. I'll be watching."

The ghost told him how to show himself to humans and then it left. And Gerard was left to huddle with his knees to his chest and hope that Frankie understood that he had no other choice but to do this. He really didn't know what else he could possibly do.


	5. Gerard Is An Idiot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it took so long.
> 
> My dad died and there were funerals and death certificates and I had a dream about him and cried in my sleep so lots of depressing shit but I'm back! I hope you enjoy this one.

Gerard was really not ready to do this.

There really was no other way to put it. He just wasn't ready, he wasn't sure if he would ever be. This whole ordeal scared him. Maybe it was because of the nagging in the back of his head that told him that if he managed to scare one person he'd lose complete control and become something so far away from human that he could never go to heaven. Or hell, which ever was waiting for him at the other side. Because Gerard did want to go. Eventually. He wasn't ready to leave, he felt he had things to do, things to say. He needed to speak to Mikey, first of all. He wanted to tell him just how sorry he was and how much he loved him. How much he appreciated him and everything that he did for Gerard back he was alive. He wanted to tell him that he was so much better than Gerard and he should have stopped looking at Gerard like he was a saint a long time ago. He also needed to say sorry to Frank for all the trouble that he'd put him through. Because at the end of the day, the guy was okay. He liked him. Gerard could have easily been friends with him. And all the bad things that had happened to him had all lead back to Gerard.

Gerard felt the reason he had been held back from death was so that he may fix all the mistakes he made while he was still alive. But while God, or whoever, was trying to send him messages to fix his mistakes, he'd fallen victim to another ghost's cruel games. What was weird was that the ghost had never been there while Gerard lived in the house, so what the hell had drawn it to them now? Gerard had so many questions in his head that were left unanswered. So many things he had to do and not the slightest idea of how much time he had to do them. The only thing he knew right now was that he was stuck. Stuck in a corner. On one side, advancing toward him, was Ryan the scary medium, with his un-trusting gaze and his magic blood circles. On the other side was the ghost, a creature as old as time, for all Gerard knew, with promises of worlds of pain if Gerard did not do as he promised. As always, Gerard came on top as the coward. Because that's what he was. All his life he'd been a pushover and a follower. What made the afterlife any different? The only thing that was completely clear to him was that out of those two people, the one most likely to hurt him was not Ryan. He didn't want to hurt Frank. At all. He liked him. Sometimes Gerard just stared at him without Frank realising and he'd realise ho beautiful he was. A feeling would fill his belly that he could only relate with jealousy. But he had felt jealousy before. And this wasn't what that felt like. So, with a heavy heart, he prepared his great big scare. Which he wasn't sure was going to work at all.

Gerard had quite the extensive knowledge of horror movies. He decided the best way to scare Frank would be to first warm him up a little by throwing a few things. Maybe he could pass for the other ghost just momentarily, make Frank feel threatened because of the fact that he didn't know his foe. Then, he would jump out at him and yell...something. After a bit of thought he went for the casual 'boo' because what the fuck else was he supposed to yell. With dread on his mind for the next day, and wonders of what Frank could be doing, he sat in the basement and drew out his plan.

 

**

 

When Frank woke up that day the whole events of the day before felt unreal. His head spun as images of Gerard and mug shots of his murderers flashed in his mind. Ryan also held a very prominent spot in Frank's mind. And the fear that had flashed through Gerard's beautiful eyes when Ryan had questioned him about the other ghost. Frank was suddenly very curious of where the fuck that ghost had been living in his house that Gerard had not noticed it until it was too late. Ryan said that there was a high possibility it was hiding in the walls. He also started thinking of what had become of Gerard after he disappeared. He was almost too sure that Gerard resided in the basement, as that was where all the weird noises always came from. He didn't want to go downstairs and see him in case he just scared him more than he had yesterday. He wanted Gerard to stop trying to get him out this house. He wanted to talk to him. There was an overwhelming urge in him to just hug Gerard when he saw him yesterday. He didn't know what it was but he knew he'd be fooling himself if he said he didn't feel protective toward Gerard in some way or another. He wasn't completely sure of his feelings toward him yet but he knew he didn't like to see him in the oppressed state he knew Gerard had faced many times in his life. 

Ryan was not planning on coming over today. He said he needed a day to rest and get his energy levels back up. He informed Frank that the reason Gerard had gotten away was because the stress and fear he was feeling actually managed to overpower Ray and his circle was broken, letting him disappear and get away. Frank had called Ryan and told him about what he found out about Gerard through his internet stalking and asking. Asking google, obviously. Ryan told him that there was a way to expel Gerard and make him rest. Frank had objected to doing it. He didn't even know why. He just knew he had business with Gerard that he had to resolve before Gerard could go on and pass to his real afterlife.

Frank got dressed that day and walked outside, driving to the city in his Eagles shirt. It took him about 10 minutes to drive into the city. Gerard's house was conveniently placed just outside the city borders between two towns of Jersey. It was just far enough so that Frank had nature to photograph but just close enough so that he could drive in whenever he wanted easily. Also, far enough so he didn't have to deal with pesky people. Which, he guessed, is probably another reason why Gerard chose this place to live.

Frank ventured into the city, getting weird looks from the nosy people. Frank had always gotten those weird looks and his friends always told him it was probably because he tended to smile a lot. Smiling stupidly was something Frank indeed did a lot, without even realising. He didn't let people's mean words get to him, maybe that was why he didn't feel the need to blend in to the sad cloud that had formed over New Jersey after years and years of depressed people and gangs and killings and drug deals. And the bad weather always contributed to negativity. Frank had moved into this town from one a few towns over, looking for a new start further away form his family. He had lived in the city for quite a while, earning himself friends like Ray from the vinyl store, before he decided to pursue his photography dream and moved out the city.

Frank found the comic book store quite easily, it was like he could smell Batman from two streets over. He entered with a big smile on his face, waltzing up to the counter where a quite man with lots of tattoos and a dark afro manned the cash-machine. He looked up when Frank walked in and Frank waved at him, reading his name tag, which was marked Joe. He went back to reading whatever it was he was looking at whilst Frank begun to walk around the shop, glancing in shelves and kind of working up the courage to tell the guy what he was after. He eventually walked up to the guy with a fake cough to grab the man's attention. The guy looked up and drawled, apparently bored.

"Can I help you?"

He popped his gum and chewed with a lazy jaw, his eyes half closed, as if he were tired. Frank's usual enthusiasm was a stark difference to this guy.

"I'm looking for the first issue of 'Danger Days: The—"

"True lives of the fabulous killjoys? Yeah, we have that,"

The guy said, but made no attempt to go and fetch it. Frank sort of moved his head from side to side and squinted his eyes at Joe, as if asking 'wellll?'. Joe didn't speak but he did walk toward a certain isle and pick up a book, handing it to Frank, who had followed. Frank stared at the book in his hands. He felt Gerard's life and work somehow radiating from the pages of the comic and into his fingers, into his body, filling him with a determination for justice he hadn't felt before.

Frank walked home ready to face whatever was coming to him. He really wasn't prepared, however, for Gerard.

Gerard had spent the whole day planning his attack. And by planning, I mean wallowing in a corner and crying about his predicament. He was just that type of person. So when it came to scaring Frank, he was completely unprepared. But he had watched movies. So when Frank walked in, he began his 'Scare Frank Using A Combination Of Super Cool Awesome Tricks That You Learnt From Horror Movies' or SFUACOSCATTYLFHM for short.

Frank knew what was happening when things started to lift themselves and drop down before his feet. He could not deny the excitement that swelled up in his heart as he felt the air get cold around him. Gerard's image popped up in his head and he found himself smiling like an idiot as he shouted.

"Gerard, is that you?"

He really hoped it was his own little personal Casper, and not the other ghost which was trying relentlessly to end him, or something. What he didn't expect when he spoke was for Gerard to actually materialise before him and stare at him. He didn't speak. There was a very weird energy coming off him that kept Frank silent as well. He could see fear in Gerard's eyes and found his thoughts straying to making Gee less miserable. He hated that other ghost more than ever right now.

He started moving closer to Gerard, who got a scared expression on his face and moved back.

"Ah—um—stay away!"

He spoke, touching the wall behind his back, feeling himself sweating. He couldn't do this, he couldn't. Especially to Frank! Frank moved closer to him slowly with one arm stretched out in front of him.

"No! Um—"

Gerard let out a few thinking noises. What does he say, what does he do? How does he scare Frank? How is he supposed to say something that will scare /frank/ and his little gentle soul which only had room for niceness. Gerard said the first thing that popped to his head, and he immediately regretted it.

"Bee!"

No, Gerard, you stupid idiot! It's BOO! Why does he get everything wrong?! Gerard was so startled by his ginormous mess up and his uselessness that he felt tears prickling his eyes. Oh, God, why couldn't he just be good at things? Why did he have to suck so much, why did he have to be such a screw up!  
He didn't want Frank to see him cry. He ran off. Frank already had a confused expression at what Gerard had shouted at him but he shook his head and ran after Gerard, screaming after him.

"Gerard, wait! Wait, don't run away!"

But Gerard didn't listen, his eyes clouded with tears, his hands gripping his face as he ran to the basement, a place he could sit and cry in peace, wait until the other ghost came to claim him.  
Frank followed Gerard right down to the basement, a placeFrank himself hadn't beed to. He looked around him once he stepped inside, trying to spot Gerard. He hoped to God he hadn't gone invisible. He hadn't though, and sure enough, there he was, sniffling in a corner. Frank inched closer slowly.

"Gerard—"

"Go away."

Gerard muttered half heartedly and Frank couldn't help but hope that that was uncertainty he heard in Gerard's voice. He wanted to be close to him so much, he wanted to hold him and tell him everything was going to be okay, and that he was going to shoo the other mean ghost away. Instead, he continued coming closer to the shaking body on the floor, not listening to Gerard's pleading. 

And Gerard certainly stopped pleading him to go away when he was trapped inside Frank's arms, weeping ghost tears onto Frank's shirt. Frank was so amazed by how life like Gerard felt in his arms even though he didn't breathe and Frank couldn't feel his heart beat, because there wasn't one. Gerard didn't put up a fight when Frank began to stroke his hair and whisper in his ear that it would be okay. Frank didn't disk speaking or breaking their gentle atmosphere until Gerard had ceased his crying and was just cuddling up to Frank in a way that reminded Frank of a kitten. Then, he knew he had to speak.

"Gee, what's happening? Why did you try to scare me?"

He spoke softly, holding Gerard closer to his chest. At the beginning of his sentence, Gerard's non working heart fluttered as he heard his nickname. He'd never had a nickname before, he'd never had someone call him anything other than Gerard. It felt amazing, especially when it came from Frank's lips. But then the rest of the sentence ruined it for him.

"I can't say!"

He said frantically, lifting his head from Frank's chest to look him in the eyes. Fear was evident in his own. Frank saw that and immediately his hands tightened around Gerard's frail body, feeling anger seethe inside him. What the hell had that ghost done?

"It'll—"

"—Hurt you, I know."

Frank said sadly, sighing and softly putting his hand on Gerard's head, pushing it right down to his chest so that Gee would stop worrying. Gerard almost purred in delight as he was embraced fully once more. He didn't know why he suddenly felt so safe, so warm, so amazing inside Frank's arms, as if nothing could hurt him now. Frank was stroking his hair almost possessively but Gerard didn't care. He loved it.

Frank loved it as well. He loved having Gerard to hold and comfort and worry about even though his sudden care for the little ghost was abrupt and weird. He didn't care, he didn't care if it was weird that he went from sort of scared of Gerard's existence to worrying about him and wanting him to have a happy afterlife he no doubt deserved. Maybe reading all those articles about Gerard Way's depressing life had made him sensitive to Gee and his black hair, his small teeth, his brown eyes that glimmered like a child's. Frank suddenly cut himself off, and spoke.

"I need to go get Ryan—"

"No! Stay with me."

Gerard's body tensed and he grabbed hold onto Frank's shirt with a tight grip. Frank sighed and melted back into the embrace with a smile. He then remembered his phone, hiding in his pocket.  
He lifted Gerard a little, which made little Casper let out a whine, and grabbed his cell, placing Gerard back in his spot and letting him snuggle. He dialled Ray's number, hoping Ryan would be there.

"Ray! Hey, I need you and Ryan to come over."

"Wait, what do you—"

"Mkay, see you here in a few minutes!"

Frank hung up on Ray, placing his phone on the floor near him and hoping to God Ryan would get here quick and make sure the other ghost stayed away. There had to be some kind of charm, some kind of spell that made that thing stay away, even for a little while.

When Ryan and Ray got there, Ray didn't even let Ryan speak before he was shouted. He pointed at Gerard as he did, making the poor ghost whimper and clutch Frank tighter.

"Holy fucking shit, why are you touching it, it could hurt you!"

Ray scurried toward the wall, hitting his back against it, as he worried like he was Frank's mother. Frank held Gerard tighter, hearing him whimper and feeling him quake in his arms. Gerard hadn't been used to shouting before he died, what made the afterlife different?

"Ray, shut up, this one's the nice one and you're scaring him right now."

Ray looked very amused for a second, he slowly inched closer, getting ready to speak. Ryan just rolled his eyes at his friends' antics and studied the attic, feeling strong vibes from it.

"So, wait. I'm the one who scares him?"

He asked and before Frank could retaliate and save Gerard with a witty comeback, Ryan spoke.

"Okay, yeah, shut up, we need to get Gerard out of here, somehow."

Gerard looked up from Frank's chest, still huddled within his arms and rubbed his eyes a little, speaking.

"Is there a way for me to do that."

Ryan turned around and faced Gerard. He smiled sympathetically at him, thinking about how cute and tiny he was. Truth was, no one could deny that Gerard was a cute little ghost, not even the ever-professional Ryan.

"I think we may be able to. There is this theory that if you have an item you had in your past life you were tied to, you would be able to walk outside the house if you had it with you."

Ryan spoke, pacing a little. Gerard suddenly remembered his sketch book, hiding under the floorboards. He smirked and giggled, jumping off of Frank's lap and going to the loose floorboard. He pulled it up, much to Frank, Ray and Ryan's surprise, and pulled out his sketch book, showing it to them.

"This. If this is gonna work with anything, it's this."

He said, surprisingly not that nervous at talking to three people at once. He was just very excited at the possibility of getting out of there. Ryan grinned at him and they all began to walk to the front door, Frank lagging behind and waiting for Gee, wrapping him in a side hug as soon as he could, as if he could sense Gerard's discomfort. Gerard was very grateful for him

"Okay, come on, let's go."

But right before they were at the door, Ryan's hand raised to touch the handle, Frank got an idea.

"Wait, Ryan! Do you think we could move out? The two of us, Gerard and I. Get a new house, away from the ghost?" 

Ray and Gee seemed very excited at the idea, but the look on Ryan's face and the way he sighed and looked down guiltily made them stop. Made Frank shiver. Something was going on. Something Ryan hadn't told them.

"Ryan? What is it."

Ryan looked up like a guilty child who was found eating the last cookie. Frank's question was in fact not a question. It was a statement, yet still a question. All Ryan knew was that he couldn't get away with not answering.

"You can't do that for two reasons. One, Gerard can't stay out for long. The longer he stays and the further away he gets the more tired and see through he's going to get, until he disappears and ends up back here,"

Gerard looked down sadly. He knew it couldn't be that easy. Frank looked suspicious. What's the other reason, he thought. Ryan spoke again before he could voice his thoughts.

"And you can't leave because... Remember when that ghost passed through you and made you sick?"

Frank nodded, Gerard clinging to him like he was glued there. He didn't want anything bad to be happening to Frankie. Frankie was nice to him now, he wasn't bad. He didn't deserve this.

"That was the ghost clinging onto you. You can't leave because the ghost is haunting you, Frank. It will follow you, no matter where you go."

Frank and Ray gaped at him. Frank felt that familiar fear run up his spine. He didn't ask this, he didn't ask for any of it, what did he do to deserve a ghost haunting him?

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner—"

"Well how do we get rid of the curse?"

Frank wasted no time asking. Ryan looked gloomy. Ray felt mad at him. He trusted Ryan to say the truth, especially when it came to important matters like this. But he'd lied, he could have potentially put Frank in even more danger!

"You kill the ghost. And you have to kill it, no one else."

Frank visibly paled. Gerard whimpered into his side.

"Frankie."

He heard him say. And Frank decided he was going to do it. It wasn't that easy, to come to the conclusion that he was going to kill a goddamn ghost, again. But when he felt Gee cling to him, shiver in fear, he felt compelled to do it. He had to. Gee's fate depended on him, as well, and Gerard wasn't strong enough to protect himself. Frankie wanted to protect him, keep him safe from any harm. He looked up at Ryan, smiling painfully and hugging Gee tight against his chest.

"Let's just go to Ray's. You'll tell me details later."


	6. Moikeyway I forgot about you my son lol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is crap but here you go anywaY...

"Ray-- fuck, shit, dude, how is there so much clutter in here?"

Frank exclaimed, walking in Ray's apartment with Gee hanging drowsily by his arm. He'd given Frank his sketch book to take care of the moment they walked out the door. Gerard had started to feel tired, as he said, on the way to Ray's. It wasn't a very long drive but it was still very far away from where Gerard had died, as Ryan said, since Gerard's house was located outside the city. Gerard had fallen half asleep on Frank's shoulder during the trip and then woken up when they hit a pot hole (fucking pot holes I swear, Frank's cursed the shit outta them because Gerard looked really cute while he slept)and apologised profoundly, blushing blood-red.  
Ray's house was very cluttered and messy, but granted, he had been kinda busy with ghost business. He liked referring to it as that in his head, Ray did. It made him sound like a ghostbuster. And also, Mikey. Mikey had been a huge distraction. Point is, the house was messy and Ray's guitar wasn't even on its stand and that was usually when Frank realised Ray was way too concentrated on something else to take care of himself. Frank looked at him curiously. A light bulb had flicked over his head. What had Ray so distracted? It couldn't be just this ghost business, could it? He decided that there was no harm in asking, looking around. Where the hell had Ray been after Frank first told him about the ghost? And the next few days?

"Ray? What's going on?"

Ray looked at him with a look that showed he wasn't very bothered with this conversation, instead picking up things and shoving them somewhere where they looked presentable. He raised his eyebrows at Frank, as if to say I don't know what you're talking about but Frank wouldn't be fooled. He spotted the answering machine. It was flashing green over and over, meaning Ray had messages. So he smirked at Ray, who didn't realise and then dropped off Gerard at the couch, where he snuggled into a tight ball and started sori g lightly. Frank kinda had to stop himself from squealing at the cuteness of his little ghost, little Casper, as he'd nicknamed him. Frank looked at the answering machine, sitting on a small table next to Ray's black leather couch('very expensive, don't touch it, Frank' he'd been told which was weird because it was a couch what the hell was it supposed to do other than be touched, look pretty?)and then he giggled mischievously, hearing Ray leaving the room and scattering about in the bedroom, the room closest to the living room. He pressed a few buttons. He didn't know how to work this thing. He lay on the large expanse of couch, making sure not to bother Gee, and started messing with the machine more until it made sound.

"You have two new messages. Twenty one in your storage."

The voice in the receiver said and Frank whistled in surprise. Damn Toro, what, was he famous now and he never told Frank? 

"Play messages.."

Frank mumbled, hitting a button he hoped would do what he wanted it to do. Thankfully, a voice once again spoke and this time it said it would play the messages. Frank's mouth twisted up and to the side. He was so ready to find out Toro's secret. It seemed that Gee had woken up and gotten interested, because he clambered on Frank where he lay on the couch and wrapped his arms around Frank's neck, yawning in his ear. Frank grinned. He liked having Gee there, with his arms around Frank, his gentle yet not-human weight on Frank's back and legs.

"You ready for the big reveal, little Casper."

He spoke like a jedi knight would speak to his student. Gerard giggled and nodded, holding onto Frank as they waited for the machine to start saying something. 

"Saturday 23rd April, from number 606-1542-372"

A different voice played then, one much too high for a guy's. But it was definitely a man.

"Hey, Ray. It's me, Mikey. I had lots of fun with you last time we went out, I was wondering if you wanted to do it again? Okay, um, call me? Thanks."

Frank laughed at the thought of Ray with a boyfriend. He turned his head a little so he was facing Gee and spoke.

"Haha, Toro has a boy toy."

He then laughed all over again, expecting Gerard to giggle along. But he didn't he was staring off into space with a black look on his face. Before Frank could ask what was up, the machine went off again.

"Friday 30th of April, from number 606-1542-372"

The Mikey dude again. This was a few days after the last call. Frank just the realised that the last call would have been made a day or so after he told Ray about Gerard.

"Hey, Ray. Thanks for calling me back a few days ago, I was actually worried you wouldn't wanna see me again, haha. But um, yeah, I really enjoyed the film we watched yesterday, I was wondering if you wanted to do it again? Okay, um, bye."

And then the rest of the messages just kept on coming.

"Hey, Ray. Sorry I missed your call yesterday—"

"Hey, Ray. About the carnival, wanna go tomorrow? If you can—"

"Hey Ray, there's this cool local band playing at Vinnie's tonight at ten if you wanna come—"

"Monday 4th—"

"Thursday 16th—"

"Friday 25th—"

Until it got to the most recent one. From yesterday. Gerard was still silent and Frank was so confused as to why that he wasn't laughing anymore.

"Saturday 26th of May, from number 606-1542-372"

"Hey Ray. We haven't—You haven't called me in a while. I don't know if you're busy or something but, um, I would appreciate you at least telling me, not ignoring my calls. Am I annoying, or something? Just tell me if you want me to stop calling, okay? Um, bye."

And then the line went dead. Gerard abruptly pulled away from Frank and sat on the couch, curled into foetal position. Frank looked alarmed when Gerard began to cry.

"Oh god—um, Gee? What's wrong, little ghost?"

He asked, holding Gee. It seemed that was the only thing he knew how to do. But it helped Gee, because he went silent for a few seconds and then when he spoke, his voice was whispery and thin, frail even.

"That was my brother. Mikey is my brother."

He said, and Frank's hand froze where it had been stroking Gee's hair. Gerard didn't like that so he made a sound of distaste which snapped Frank out of his gaze. He continued to stroke Gerard's messy, oily hair until he'd fallen back to sleep, which was very easy to do. That was when Ray walked in, smiling a little. He saw Frank with the blank look on his face and spoke, looking worried.

"Hey, man, are you okay?"

Frank truly snapped out of it, placing Gerard off him and on the couch, getting up and walking to Ray.

"Yeah, I'm good. Mikey sent you a message, if I were you I would call him, he's getting pretty sick of you not calling back Ray."

Ray spluttered.

"What—how—how did—I—"

"Yeah, okay. All you gotta know is that, Mikey? Yeah, he's Gerard's brother, apparently."

Ray looked shocked, even more tha before. But suddenly he remembered how sad Mikey was at the record store, how he'd mumbled about Gerard under his breath. It made sense. He had to get Mikey to come here. To see Gerard.

"Do you think I should tell him?"

He asked Frank, who was making himself a cup of coffee with a bemused expression on his face. He looked at Ray with a 'duh' look on his face.

"Um, yeah? Get him to come here as quick as possible!"

Frank said and Ray picked up his mobile and walked to his veranda, where he could be alone. Ryan had disappeared in the guest room to read up on ghosts or whatever. Ray dialled Mikey's number, knowing it by now, and then placed the phone to his ear, biting his lip and crossing one arm over his chest, placing his elbow on it.

"Hey, Mikey speaking."

"Mikey! Hey! I-- It's Ray."

Mikey didn't make a sound at the end of the line for a while after Ray had spoken nervously. But when he did, Ray was so delighted to hear him sound so happy.

"Ray! You-- Oh my God, you called! I've been-- You called!"

He spoke, stuttering. Mikey had missed Ray so much. He'd spent days figuring out what the hell went wrong. As far as Ray had said, he liked going out with Mikey. Mikey sure as hell liked Ray. He was confused as to what had happened.

"Yeah, I-- I'm sorry about that. Look, do you think we can meet up, like, right now? At Starbucks?"

Ray asked, hurriedly. How the fucking hell would he explain this to Mikey? Mikey seemed to contemplate for a second, making his 'ahhh' thinking sound, as Ray called it. But Mikey seemed to have made up his mind because he spoke, quite curiously.

"Um, yeah, sure. See you there in ten."

Ray left with his keys in his hand and his relationship quite possibly nearly at its end.

**

Ryan walked out of his room two hours after Ray left, carrying three books in each hand, looking like he was struggling to carry them all. Gerard and Frank were cuddled up on the couch staring into each other's eyes like lovebirds or something. Ryan didn't comment on it, but he did smirk.

"Hey--"

He said but cut himself off as he dropped four books and stooped down to pick them up, dropping the other two as he did so. He cursed and just left them there, picking up one and flipping through pages to find what he needed as Gerard and Frank looked up at him, Frank laying down with Gerard's body on top of his.

"I--I found something."

Ryan spoke, and Gerard sat up quickly, accidentally hitting Frank in the stomach and making him groan. Gerard apologised and then spoke to Ryan.

"What did you find?"

He asked, and Ryan smirked, coughing and starting to speak as Frank sat up on the couch as well.

"I found out a few things about the other ghost."

Ryan walked toward the couch and then sat on the coffee table that was before it, facing Frank and Gerard.

"It might not be a ghost at all. There's this thing called a Vengeful Spirit. Basically still a ghost, buy a very angry one, for one reason or another."

Gerard looked a little out of it again, tired, so Frank spoke.

"So, how do we get rid of it?"

Ryan looked a little worried then. He shifted in his seat and sighed, flipping through the book a little before he pointed to something and muttered to himself. He looked up at them and then spoke.

"It says here that you need to find an item, just like we did for Gerard, that the ghost was tied to and destroy it."

Gerard looked a little worried then.

"Does that mean that if you destroy my book, I'll die? Like, die-die?"

Ryan didn't answer, looking down. Gerard felt fear rush up inside him. Frank rubbed his arm and kissed his cheek. Frank felt fear as well, for the ghost he'd learnt to like over a small period of time. He spoke to Ryan.

"So, how do we find out about the ghost? We need to know who this ghost is to get rid of it, right?"

Ryan nodded and out away the book, closing it and placing it on the table next to him. He leant back on his arms.

"Yeah, you'll have to do some research. Find out who else has died in that house."

Frank nodded and said he'd get right to it, climbing to Ray's computer in his bedroom and opening it up, getting ready to do some work. Ryan and Gerard stayed behind, Ryan felt like Gerard had something to say.

"So, um, did you find anything about...?"

Gerard looked down awkwardly, fumbling with his hands. Ryan looked sadly at him, sitting on the couch next to him, petting his back.

"I tried to find anything that could help you get out of there, Gee. But I can't find anything. I'll keep looking, okay, don't lose hope."

Ryan said, hoping to not cause any more concern to Gerard. Gerard was worried, however. He didn't know what to do or how to feel. Everything had changed so much in such a short period of time. He knew that there were high chances that he would have to live it out with the horrible other ghost that was mean to him while they found out how to get rid of him. Frank would too. And Gerard knew that the ghost would be angry at him the moment he went back. He hadn't scared Frank, at all. Quite the opposite actually, he had become closer to him. The ghost would feel threatened because of them becoming closer, and because of them talking to Ryan, who Gerard was sure the ghost was aware of. There were high chances that Gerard wouldn't make it out of this. High chances that he would be gone gone in a few days, even.

He suddenly felt very very sick, he tried to control his stomach, but before he knew it, he was dry retching toward the floor. He had no fluids inside him to throw up. He felt Ryan help him lie down, heard him trying to say something but he couldn't hear what it was. All he knew was that he would have to go home. And very very soon.


	7. Utilising The Internet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY GUYS! So, super excited to say that there is now a trailer for this story! fuck yeah!check it out guys! Heres the link: http://youtu.be/JqKO92T43MQ . Also, check out AngelOfIsolation,(on wattpad) they are the ones who made the trailer! Look them up, hit them up if you need a trailer of your own, I guess :)   
> Okay, read on

Frank's fingers clicked against the keyboard of Ray's computer. He was feeling like his eyeballs were excessively dry because of all the time he'd spent with his eyeballs glued to a screen; plus all the lights were off. He knew he didn't have a lot of time before Gee had to go back home, and he refused to let him go alone. He felt the need to be there.

"Man dies in fire... Cool!"

He spoke as he looked over articles about his house and tragedies that had happened there. There weren't a whole lot of things. One death in a fire, one suicide and Gerard (who's death articles Frank skipped because he felt he couldn't bear it). But one little article caught his eye. About a murderer who had lived in his house. A Doctor Leighton, who had gone crazy somewhere along his studies and started to butcher unsuspecting patients. The website it was written on (GHOST-NERDS/kewlfactsaboutghosts.com) said something about how if a soul had butchered itself (by butchering others) while it was alive, then a vengeful spirit was formed in its place when it died, a deformed soul of a person trapped on earth forever unless someone expelled it. It basically turned into a demon like thing. Frank was about to look more into it before Ryan rushed in the room.

"Shit, Frank, we have to get Gee home right now."

"Fuck."

Frank muttered and shut the screen of the computer, grabbing his jacket on his way to the living room. The sight that greeted him was Gerard looking very pale, for a ghost. He ran closer and cradled Gee's head.

"Shh, baby, we're gonna get you home."

Gerard seemed in a delirious state, but he still heard Frank's words and all they did was make him squirm and cry. He didn't want to go back. He wanted to stay at the nice, curly haired man's house with Ryan and Frankie. He didn't want to face the ghost. He hated it. He hated the power it had over him.

"No! No, Frankie, please!"

Frank felt his eyes well up. He didn't want to take Gee back either. He felt much better when he knew that Gee was safe, near him. He picked him up bridal style and watched him as he rolled up in a ball against Frank's chest. He walked with him to the car and got him in, letting Ryan drive them back.

**

Frank opened the door cautiously, Gee hiding behind him, as if he was waiting for something to jump out at them. When he felt he'd waited long enough, he grabbed Gee's hand and spoke to him.

"On three, we run to my bedroom, okay?"

Frank knew running wouldn't help. But he would feel much safer after he'd gone in his bedroom and locked the door, Gee by his side. Gerard nodded, his upturned nose twitching as he felt tears well up in his eyes. He didn't want to be a crybaby. He sniffed and then waited for Frank to start counting.

"One,"

Gerard squeezed Frank's hand.

"Two,"

Frank squeezed it back.

"Three!"

They dashed to Frank's bedroom, closing the front door with a thud behind them as they went. Up the stairs their footsteps echoed and Gerard struggled to keep up with Frank, who was a surprisingly fast runner. The moment they'd made it to Frank's room they shut the door behind them and locked it, collapsing on the bed. Gerard felt the day's worth pile up on him and felt very very tired. He made grabby hands at Frank, who laughed and walked closer, engulfing Gerard in a hug.

"Aw, are you tired?"

Gerard nodded tiredly as Frank cooed at him. Frank lay down and let Gerard climb on him and rest his body against Frank's, letting his head rest against Frank's chest. Frank held him, smiling.

"Go to sleep, I'll watch out for you."

Gerard listened to him, letting his eyes close and falling into deep slumber. He hadn't felt as alive as he felt right then for a long time.

**

Two hours before, Ray walked inside Starbucks, looking disgruntled and rushed, his hair flying all over the place even more than it usually did. Mikey saw him from the other end of the shop and waved at him. Ray speed walked over and sat down, looking very starstruck still. Mikey tried to ignore it. He had questions as to where Ray had been.

"Hey!"

Ray said, breathing out his words as if he had been running a marathon.

"Hey Ray. Where--"

"Look, I can't explain right now. I just need you to come with me, okay?"

Ray cut him off, raising his eyebrows at him as if asking if Mikey would trust him with this. Mikey opened and closed his mouth for a little while. He had a lot of things to say and a lot of questions to ask. But he eventually nodded silently and let Ray grab him by the hand and drag him away.  
Ray grabbed his cellphone the moment he walked outside, Mikey's cold hand in his, his long spidery fingers winding around Ray's. He called Ryan.

"Hey, Ryan. Yeah, me. Look-- I don't think I can explain everything to Mikey like this, okay? How about I bring him over... Frank's still there?... They're leaving?! Oh, okay. He'll have to see--"

Ray shot Mikey a look before he continued, muttering darkly into the phone.

"You know who, later then. Okay, bye."

The moment he hung up and power walked to his own house, Mikey spoke.

"So, why do you want me to meet Voldemort?"

Ray tried to ignore Mikey's joking, this wasn't the time for that. Of course Mikey didn't know that, but he was about to find out.

"I mean, if your big secret is that you're a death eater you can go ahead and just--"

Ray stopped in his tracks and turned, grabbing Mikey's cheeks and looking deep into his hazel eyes. Mikey froze, stopped speaking. He could feel Ray's breath against his face.

"Mikey, I'm very sorry to say this, but this isn't just a joke, okay? It's serious."

Mikey looked at how solemn Ray looked, it was written all over his face. He nodded slowly, understanding but at the same time not. Ray gave him a lingering kiss on the lips and then grabbed his hand again, walking toward his house. They didn't expect what they would find on their way.

**

Ryan got worried when Ray and Mikey didn't show up. Obviously he did. He'd let Gerard and Frank go after Gee started feeling woozy and tired. He did his own research while he stared at the clock wearily every now and then. They were supposed to be here ages ago. Where the hell had they gone? He was flipping through books when he got a phone call.

"Ray?! What the fuck man, where the fuck have you bee--"

"Ryan, shut up and get over here right now."

Ryan almost got whiplash at how quick he snapped his head up from staring at the floor. What the actual fuck was going on!

"What? Come where?"

"To Bob's house, now. I'll explain once you get here."

Ryan got the address off Ray and then raced to his car, jumping in and driving toward his destination. His heart was doing flips inside his stomach, his eyes tearing up from the stress and half-excitement. What was going on, he needed to know.  
He immediately raced out the car the moment he got there and knocked on the door as loudly as he could. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Ray to open it and usher him in, not letting him speak.

"In the basement, now."

Ryan just followed him as he was led to the basement of the foreign house, where he was surprised to find something that looked a little like his basement. The man he assumed was Bob walked up to him and stretched out his hand before Ryan could fully progress what was going on.

"Bob Bryar. You must be the Ryan I always hear about."

They shook hands and Ryan nodded with a wide mouth hanging open, staring around him. There were things pinned up on the walls ranging from news articles to photographs. Some had lines to connect them and others were colour coded. Ryan was starting to realise what was going on.

"You are?..."

Ryan said, he and Bob both knew he didn't mean anything other than his profession. And by the way he said it, Bob guessed he knew something weird was up.

"Ghost hunter."

"Ah."

Ryan nodded. He'd heard about ghost hunters before. Many times, actually. As a kid he used to think of them as some kind of Ghost Busters induced fantasy with guns and special machines that sucked the ghosts like a vacuum. But the reality was far from that. Ghost hunters weren't far from Mediums like Ryan or even conjurers. They didn't have cool machines and all, just spells and books and the same things that everyone who knew about the supernatural had, or should have. Ryan had only ever encountered one Ghost Hunter in his life and that had been a guy called Dallon, back in 09. He helped him with a case, they swapped phone numbers and that was the end of it, Ryan hadn't seen him since then. And that was nearly seven years ago. Ghost Hunters tended to stay more underground than the rest of the supernaturally involved such as conjurers and so and so, staying out the way of everyone and anything and never advertising their services.

"And you've called me here because..?"

Ray spoke up just as Bob was going to say something.

"Bob here has been hunting the same ghost as us for a while now. He moved here when he heard about Gerard's death a year or so ago to find out more, see if it was his thing, and; well..."

Bob took it from here, going up to point at a few pictures and notes on the wall as he spoke. Mikey's head was reeling at this point. It seemed people had forgotten he was there. Did they mean his Gerard? Were they talking about the same person? And what was all this about a ghost?

"I overheard Frank and Ray talking in the record store and that's when it was confirmed for me that something weird was going on. I hadn't delved into it at all, I'd visited the house while it was still on sale but I felt no ghosts whatsoever. And then Frank talked about the drawing and all..."

Bob paused to stare at them.

"I assume you know that there is a vengeful spirit hiding away inside the walls of that house?"

Ryan nodded and Ray just dreaded what he was going to find out. Mikey was still speechless, he wasn't gaining any information from this. It was hopeless, he had gone blank. This was too much for him.

"I have two suspects of who the ghost might be. One,"

There was a photo of an old style painting of a man in doctor's gear, decked out in full all the way from the white coat to the spectacles on the bridge of his nose. He seemed very old fashioned and in his late forties. That made Ryan assume the painting was old.

"Doctor Edward Leighton. A doctor from the 20th Century. He was one of the most prestigious in his art until he died at the age of forty nine. Killed by police in his home after he went on a killing spree against the people that killed his seven year old daughter." 

He pointed to another picture. It was a picture of a man in his twenties or so with blonde hair and blue eyes, wide and doe like, but they held no innocence like a woodland animal would. They were hard and cold and full of rage and apathy. He seemed like Hitler's wet dream. His jaw was sturdy and square. This was actually a photo and much, much more recent.

"Thomas Bjork. Twenty five years old. Died in a suspicious house fire twenty years ago. It was suspected that the fire was set by one of his enemies, he had plenty apparently. But they never truly found out."

Ryan's eyes widened. This was all new information, all new things that could help everyone inch a step closer to their goal. Frank needed to know right now, as soon as possible. 

"Thank you so much, Bob! I need to go tell Frank, now!"

And without another word he dashed up the stairs, out the door and into his car, driving away into the night. Bob didn't argue and neither did Ray, but Mikey had finally snapped out of his trance.

"Ray?"

He asked hesitantly. Ray turned to face him and, seeing the freaked-out look on his face, grabbed his hands and held them.

"What's going on?"

Mikey went on to say. Rya sighed. It was time to come clean.

"When Gerard died, Mikey--"

"How do you know about that!"

Ray sighed again. This was going to be hard.

"Please, Mikey, you need to listen to me. When Gerard died, he came back--"

"What the fuck are you saying, Ray?"

"-- he came back as a ghost. He still lives in his old house, but as a spirit--"

"Shut up, Ray! You're lying!"

Mikey pulled away from Ray with an angry and attacked look on his face. He couldn't believe Ray. He simply couldn't.

"Mikey, please."

"Ray, shut up!"

Silence fell across the room. Bob was standing awkwardly in the corner as Mikey huffed. He was inching toward the door, further and further away from Ray.

"I want you to lose my number, okay?"

Mikey dashed out the door and away from Ray, tears streaming down his face. It wasn't true, it couldn't be.

Mikey left. Ray cried. Bob stared on with a hard look on his face. He was used to people no believing him, just like Ray had experienced. Not many people aren't scared by the notion of beings more powerful than them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is getting shittier but i still like it lol


	8. Ray And Gerard Get Along

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dude i finally updated omg! this is no longer on hold!  
> im planning maybe 2-3 more chapters and then an epilogue!

Frank's eyes were once again weary from the computer. His fingers felt callused and the tips of them dragged along the keyboard at his attempts to find out more. Gerard's head was across his lap, and he was sound asleep, as he had been since about three hours ago when Ryan ran inside and told Frank about the new information that had been found out through Bob. Frank had been researching ever since. There hadn't been anything much on the doctor, which left them with loose ends, but Frank had been able to find a lot about the other guy, the one who became a human barbecue. He had found a home address and phone number for the guy's mother, a famous psychologist or something of the sort. But since then, he'd started to become tired. And tiredness meant that he couldn't get any real work done.

He ended up dragging his fingers through Gerard's hair and smiling as he sighed happily. He felt the suspicion about the ghost in the back of his head. It was here, somewhere. Its deformed face was staring at them from afar and Frank knew it. He just didn't know why the hell it was holding back.

**

Ray was sitting in his house with his hands on his face just as he had from the moment he left Bob's house two hours ago. He couldn't believe how he had messed up so bad with Mikey. He felt like fucking crying right then, his eyes were prickling with tears. Why did this have to happen now, when he'd finally found someone he was interested in keeping. And he felt sorry for Mikey too, his brother was just a few steps away from him, if only he chose to believe. Ray knew it wouldn't be easy for to, he was probably so close to accepting his brother's death when suddenly, some random guy decides to tell him that his brother is a ghost. Ray had no more time to think, as he got a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Ray! I need you to come here and stay with Gerard while Ryan and I go and meet that guy's mother."

Ray nodded and said he'd get up right now and come over. He got in his car and began to drive to Frank's place. Ryan had stayed there the night before doing research with Frank.

On the other end of the line, Frank had hung up and turned to face Gee. His heart melted at how scared Gee looked. He hadn't been in this house without Frank for a while.

"Do you really have to go?"

Gerard whimpered, staring at the ground. He didn't want Frankie to go! He wanted him to stay with him and cuddle on his bed like they had the past few nights, where Frank was whispering sweet little nothings into his ears, saying that he wouldn't let the ghost hurt him. What was going to happen when he was here with Ray, but not with Frank?

"You'll be okay, Gee. Don't worry, okay? Ray is going to take good care of you."

He hugged him tight, Gerard shoving his face in Frankie's chest and breathing him in. Frank felt like crying very suddenly, maybe because he noticed that Gee was shaking slightly inside his arms. He laid a sweet kiss on his head, just as there was a knock on the door of Frank's bedroom and Ryan walked in. He smiled at the sight of their tight embrace.

"Frank, you ready to go?"

Frank nodded and pulled away from Gerard, kissing his cheek and then using his thumb to rub it in circular motions. He mouthed to Gerard "I'll be back" and then walked away, walking downstairs with Ryan. Ray had just arrived and pulled up in the driveway, giving Ryan the keys and saying goodbye, walking inside the house and calling out.

"Gerard?"

Gee ran down the stairs like a little kid and pounced on Ray. He hadn't gotten really close with Ray but the fear of the other ghost in the house had him clinging tightly to Ray's shirt. Ray laughed a little and patted Gerard's back.

"Don't worry kiddo, I'm here now, I'm gonna take care of you until Frank comes back." He assured him with a wide smile on his lips. Gerard truly believed him.

**

Frank and Ryan were at the house of Thomas Bjork's mother, which had proven way too easy to find. Frank felt like things were finally looking up with their luck on this ghost shit, and he was staying pretty positive as he raised his fist to knock on the door.

Ryan shot him a nervous look as footsteps were heard and a woman opened the door, long blond hair framing her wrinkled face.

"Hi! Mrs. Bjork?" Frank asked with excitement in his voice. "We just need to ask a few questions, if you'd please help us out." He kept a gentle smile on his lips.

The lady looked a bit confused and curious, even suspicious, Ryan would say, and sure enough she asked them quickly.

"What sorts of questions?" Her voice was tired and worn out.

Frank had been worried she would ask her own questions. Of course she would, any logical person would.

"About your son, Mrs Bjork."

Her eyes widened and her guard dropped, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she shut it and pursed her lips.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can do that--" She started to shut the door but Frank stopped it with his hand. Both Ryan and Mrs Bjork looked at him with a surprised look on their faces.

"Please," Frank found himself begging, his happiness and smile gone as he realised that she was one of their only hopes. He needed to save Gerard "This is important. People are in danger and you can help."

Frank didn't know what Mrs Bjork saw in his eyes, he wasn't sure, but he didn't care, as long as she swung the door open and let them in after a few minutes of silence. Ryan shot Frank a curious look. Where had this pleading come from all of a sudden?

"What do you need to know?" Mrs Bjork asked as they sat down in her living room. Frank spoke up.

"Just anything you can tell us about who killed your son." He said with determination in his voice. Ryan thought to himself that Frank could have gone about that in a more sensitive way, he rolled his eyes.

Mrs Bjork sighed to herself and breathed deeply a few times, shutting her eyes "The police said it must have been someone who had some kind of vendetta against him. But he knew better, and I know better." She started, her eyes sad when she opened them again.

"What really happened, Mrs Bjork?" Ryan urged, leaning in in interest.

"Well, my son didn't have many enemies, not like the police said he did. It was better for them to say that, make up some bullshit excuse about his death, because they couldn't find the real cause." She continued "Before his death, he kept telling me something was in his house, something that wanted to kill him."

Frank and Ryan shot each other a look. This was turning out to be a very enlightening conversation.

"And I never believed him. Up until the day that he ended up locked in one of the rooms of the house, the door locked from the outside. And the room set on fire. He burnt to death." Her voice cracked at that point "I don't know what's in that fucking house, but whatever it is, it's evil. And it killed my son."

Frank and Ryan thanked her and left the house as soon as possible. Something told them that they had a certain doctor to deal with.

**

Ray wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but while Frank and Ryan were away, he called up Mikey. Who, surprisingly answered.

"I told you to leave me alone--"

"Mikey! You answered! Please just--" Ray tried to get him to listen immediately, but Mikey cut him off.

"Ray, please, I think I've been through enough heartbreak about my brother to be able to put up with this!" Mikey shouted down the line, his voice cracking.

"Mikey, you need to listen to me! Please just come to Gerard's old house, please just give me a chance to explain myself!" Ray shouted back, so glad he finally got a few words in, whether Mikey would listen to them or not.

"Ray--"

"Please." Ray's voice was gentler this time "Please just give me a chance."

Mikey sighed down the line and he hung up, leaving Ray to desperately hope that Mikey would agree, that he would get in his car after their short conversation and come over to see what the hell was going on, to see Gerard.

Then Ray would be able to explain everything. Mikey would believe him and they'd be back together, and Mikey and Gerard would see each other again. Ray put the phone down and ran a hand through his hair.

"D-did he say he's c-coming?" Gerard asked in a small voice, looking at Ray with wide, scared and hopeful eyes.

"I don't know Gee. We'll find out soon." Ray put a smile on his face for the little ghost, to make him feel better "I hope he is." Ray hugged Gerard.

"I hope he is t-too." Gerard sniffed and let himself be hugged, a long sigh leaving his lips "I wanna see him again. I miss him, Ray."

Ray felt sadness in his heart for the little ghost, and he sighed as well, running a hang through Gerard;s hair in what he hoped was a comforting way "I miss him too, little Casper. I'm sure he will listen and come, and everything will be okay!" Ray tried to assure him.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right Ray." Gerard muttered "I have so many things I need to say to him, so many things I need to apologise about."

"Like what?" Ray didn't mean to intrude but he couldn't help but be curious.

"I was such a horrible brother. I was always staying inside cause of my anxiety and he had to take care of me and I'm sure he hated it." Gerard explained, his tone embarrassed as he said those words he had been keeping inside of him for so long. "I was so scared of human interaction that he was the only person I ever talked to. I'm sure he was so sick of it. Sick of having a loser for a brother--"

"No, no, come on Gerard, I'm sure he didn't think like that! Mikey loves you, it wouldn't have been a burden for him, I can assure you of that. He just wanted you to get better." Ray tried to comfort him.

"And yet I never even tried to get better, Ray, all those stupid appointments I went to did nothing, my medication just made me all the more depressed." Gerard whined, his voice cracking.

Ray sighed and shushed him gently, seeing him get worked up. "It's okay, Gerard, It's okay... Anxiety isn't something easy to overcome, especially at the degree you seem to have it." Ray pulled away so he could look Gerard in the eyes and smile. "But hey, you're talking to Frankie! And Ryan, and me, that's amazing that you managed to do that!"

Gerard looked down "Yeah, after I died..."

Ray shook his head "No, no, it still counts, it's still amazing! And you managed to be so strong by yourself here in this big house, no one knowing you were here, before Frank moved in." He had a wide smile on his face "All those things deserve to be praised." Ray continued and felt happiness swell up inside him when he saw a small smile etch at the corners of Gerard's lips.

Gerard was going to answer, but then the doorbell suddenly rang. Ray and Gerard's heads shot up and then they looked to each other. "It's either Ryan and Frank..." Ray started.

"Or Mikey." Gerard finished for him, looking scared about who was going to be behind that door.

"Can you be the one to open it, please?" Gerard whimpered and Ray immediately nodded his head.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course." He got up and sighed to himself, Gerard getting up as well, staying in his spot near the door as Ray shot him an unsure smile and walked to the door.

He opened it.


	9. What The Hell Is Gerard?

"You-You came!" Ray called out as Mikey walked shyly through the door, staring at the floor.

"Yeah, and I'm not gonna stay for long, so you better get talking." Mikey tried to sound angry or determined or something other than scared and weak but every part of his body had given up. He could not show strength any longer.

"No, no, that's okay! I can prove it right now!" Ray said and then he turned around to the last place that he had seen Gerard disappear. 

"Gerard? You can come out now." He muttered and he hoped Gerard wouldn't have backed out last second, or decided this was a bad choice. His whole relationship with Mikey depended on this moment. Gerard had to show.

Sure enough, it only took a few seconds before Gerard slowly materialised out of thin air, looking small and scared, just how Mikey had been used to seeing his brother.

Mikey gasped "R-Ray, is this.." he started, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping "Is this real?" 

Ray just nodded his head, a wide smile on his face, so happy at Mikey's reaction. "You can hug him, if you want. You guys can touch." He informed him but Mikey seemed to be frozen.

"M-Mikey.." Gerard whimpered and that was all it took, it seemed for Mikey to snap out of it and rush forward, hugging Gerard close.

"Oh my god!" H cried out, squeezing Gerard tightly "You.. you're here!" He felt tears rush to his eyes.

"Y-yeah, I-I'm here, Mikey." Gerard said too, hugging Mikey back, a few tears rolling down his face "I-I'm here." He continued to cry in Mikey's shoulder.

Ray stared on, a bit awkward but still happy to be witnessing Gerard and Mikey, two siblings, seeing each other again. It was a very emotional sight. He felt his heart swell with happiness as he heard Mikey's laughter, all of a sudden.

"I can't believe this!" He pulled away from their embrace to look Gerard in the eyes and stroke his cheeks with his thumbs "I-I can't believe this." He repeated and then hugged Gerard again. They were both smiling.

A while later, Mikey pulled away and smiled to Gerard before he turned to Ray "I'm sorry Ray," he muttered "You were right." 

He walked up to him and pecked him on the lips gently, and if Ray's heart was pounding before, it was soaring now. Mikey pulled away way too quickly and Ray was left dazed, but he was able to shoot Mikey a smile and a 'I told you so', as well as a blush. 

"R-Ray?" Gerard asked with a very nervous and small voice. "W-when did Frankie say he'd come back?" He asked as he looked down at the floor.

Ray tried to shoot him a gentle smile, walking over and putting a hand on Gerard's shoulder "Don't worry, little ghost, Frankie will be back soon, I'm sure." He said and pulled Gerard in for a prompt hug. 

Ghost. Wow. Mikey's brother was a ghost. Mikey's gaze was blank as he thought the situation over. He suddenly had so many questions.

"How did this happen?" He asked, Ray pulling away from their hug so Gerard could answer. 

"I-I don't know. Ryan said that he's still trying to figure it out. He's an expert in this type of stuff." Gerard informed him with a quick smile "We will know soon, considering how quick Ryan works. He's always working." Gerard said in an almost childish tone.

More childishness ensued when the doorbell rang and Gerard called out "Frankie!" 

A laugh was heard from behind the door, and Gerard rushed to open it. Frank walked in and took Gerard in a big hug immediately. 

"I'm back, little ghost." He murmured against Gerard's neck and Gerard giggled and writhed at that "That tickles.." he mumbled.

Frank pulled away and smiled at Ray too. Then Mikey. His heart pounded with what he felt was nervousness at the sight of him. He felt like he had to impress him, now that he was meeting him formally.

"Um, hi. I'm Frank Iero." He offered his hand and Mikey shook it 

"Mikey Way." Mikey answered with a polite smile. He hadn't met this man before but his brother sure seemed excited about him and he couldn't help but wonder if there was something going on between them that he didn't know about. He would ponder it later, it seemed, because Frank started speaking.

"Ryan and I figured out who it was."

_*_*_

"So it was that Doctor?" Ray asked, a quizzical look on his face.

"Yeah, it must be!" Frank nodded his head, pacing the room almost nervously.

He knew the ghost could be anywhere around them, listening in, and it was making him incredibly nervous and fidgety. It could have attacked them, but it didn't, it wasn't. 

"Well, how the hell are we supposed to kill it then? Or, make it go away?" Mikey said, having picked up on what the hell was going on. Gerard was cuddled at his side watching on intently. He perked up at this point and talked for the first time.

"M-maybe we could find something, here, around the h-house? Something of his? For all we know he left something behind. I know I did." He pointed out.

Ryan nodded his head "Yeah, Gerard's right, the Doctor wouldn't be here unless he had left something for his soul to latch onto." 

Gerard nodded proudly and Frank smiled to himself. Jesus, he was so cute.

"Well, um, I think we can start that search tomorrow." Ryan said, looking around the room to see how tired everyone looked. 

Mikey looked plain shocked still, as if he was still processing it all, and Ryan understood. There was a lot to process. Ray looked like he had eased up after Mikey had forgiven him and there was a lazy smile on his face. He looked like he just wanted to get some good rest after sorting everything out with Mikey. Gerard looked as he always did. Scared. He was clinging onto Mikey like he usually clung onto Frank and Ryan knew he'd sleep quickly once Frank took him to his bedroom and tucked him in. Frank looked hyper but his relief at Ryan's statement clearly showed that he really needed some rest. Ryan himself just wanted to go to his room in Ray's house and call Brendon and tell him everything is okay. And then sleep.

He said goodbye to everyone with Ray and then left. Mikey did the same, hugging Gerard tightly before he kissed his head and told him to be safe. That he'd be back tomorrow. And so Frank and Gerard were left alone, side by side on the couch, in silence. Until Frank spoke.

"You know what I find weird?" He asked all of a sudden, Gerard jumping a little and clutching his heart before he let out a small breath.

"No. What?" He questioned, looking around him in almost fear before scooting closer to Frank.

"The ghost hasn't attacked us. I mean, we've been here alone a lot and it hasn't attacked us when it could have. It has before." Frank pointed out as he also looked around the room before he faced Gerard.

Gerard quirked an eyebrow "T-that's true, I hadn't realised.." he said, although he was looking down at Frank's lips now instead of his face.

"Do you think it's because we're together?" Frank asked before they both blushed at the choice of words "I-I meant like maybe he can't attack us if we're not by ourselves." 

Gerard nodded, but his voice got quieter. "Yeah..." 

Frank was beginning to lean in slowly, his eyes locked with Gerard's. He didn't even realise he was doing it until he could feel Gerard's breath on his face and he realised that he was breathing heavily. His eyes kept shooting from Gerard's lips to his eyes and he was so tempted to just lean in just a tiny bit closer and find out if Gerard's lips were as soft as they looked, and if they tasted as good as Frank had imagined them to when, among this mess, he'd started to imagine what it'd be like to kiss Gerard. He didn't even realise when it happened, that he wanted to kiss Gerard, to be with him, that he started to like him. He supposed he'd wanted to protect him since the day he heard him crying. 

Frank started to lean a little bit closer but then Gerard panicked, seemingly, and kissed his cheek, moving away, making Frank blush and move back.

"I-I'm sorry--" Gerard started to apologise.

He knew that he and Frank couldn't be together, no matter how much he wanted it. Because he did want it. Frank was good for him, he was protective and he wanted him to be happy, that much was clear.

But Gerard was dead. 

They could never be together and that much was evident. Because even after the other ghost was gone, if they ever managed to get rid of it, then what? Frank would go on with his life. He'd age. He'd want to go out and see the world. And Gerard would most probably be stuck to this house forever. No end for him, no light at the end of the tunnel. Ryan was trying to help him. But he wasn't getting anywhere. He would give up, eventually. He'd get tired, want to go back home to Brendon. He would leave Gerard behind as well. And what about Mikey? Mikey wouldn't leave him by choice, but he would be ageing as well. One day, he would die. Either that or he would be too weak to visit Gerard. And what if Frank decided to move away? The other residents wouldn't understand, Mikey wouldn't be allowed in to see him.

His mind reeled. Even if they got rid of the ghost, there is no good way that this situation could end, not for Gerard. And definitely not for Gerard and Frank. Together. As a thing. It just wasn't possible. He didn't want to do that to Frank.

"It's okay." Frank shrugged it off with a gentle smile, although he wished that they had kissed.

"Do you.. do you want to go sleep?" Gerard questioned, looking down at his hands in his lap and toying with them.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. We have stuff to do tomorrow. We need to search around this house." Frank stood up and offered his hand to Gerard, who took it gratefully.

They walked up the stairs and to Frank's bedroom where Gerard jumped on the bed and shoved himself under the covers. Frank jumped in next to him and hesitantly pulled him closer, although his body was cold. He didn't care. He just wanted to hold Gerard. And he just wanted to forget that he was dead, that eh was a ghost. That he shouldn't like him. That he was just too late, Gerard was dead. He wished to himself to many times that there was a way for Gerard to be okay, but he knew there wouldn't be. It just wasn't possible. People didn't come back from the dead. And he had to deal with it right now before he hurt himself, snd Gerard.

But at the same time he didn't want to deal with it. He wanted to spend as much time with Gerard as he could, kiss him and hold him and make sure he's safe until he eventually passed away, and he would hope to join him as a ghost. But that was selfish. That was so so selfish, to want Gerard to stick around with him. To want him to stay with him even if he can't grow older. Like some weird version of growing old together where Frank would be an eighty year old getting with a young man.

No matter which way he thought about it, it didn't work.

So he didn't think about it. He shut his eyes and willed himself to sleep.

They'd figure it out. They would.

They had to.


	10. What The Hell Is Gerard? Part Two

It was early July, a few days later, when Ryan ran up to Frank's house urgently, his knocks making Gerard jump. They had both been very cautious, afraid of loud noises in case they triggered the ghost to attack.

Frank ran a calming hand through Gerard's hair and smiled at him gently before he ran off to the door and opened it, initially a bit angry at Ryan for scaring Gerard. All anger faded when Ryan didn't even greet him, just rushed into the living room where Gerard was with a book under his arm, Frank following him all while asking what the hell was happening.

"I figured it out." Ryan mumbled, out of breath, once they were all in the living room "I figured out what kind of ghost Gerard is." 

Gerard immediately stood up from the couch and Frank ran up next to him, subconsciously holding his hand. This could end badly, they both knew. They'd ran over the moment in their head over and over and it always ended badly. But they both couldn't help but hold onto a tiny hope that everything was going to be okay. That Gerard wasn't doomed.

"Well hurry up, tell us!" It was Frank who urged.

Ryan pulled out the book he was carrying and let it drop open on a page on the living room table, making Frank and Gerard flinch. But they didn't even care. 

"It-It doesn't actually have a name." Ryan started "It's so rare that this ever happens.." he trailed off until Frank snapped his fingers in front of Ryan's face, ignoring the book in front of them.

"Well are you going to fucking tell us then?" He snapped and Gerard's hold of his hand tightened, making Frank take a step back.

"You're not dead! You're not dead, you're stuck between being alive and being dead. It only happens sometimes if whoever decides this shit thinks the way you died is unfair. And only sometimes. If this happens to you, then there is a way for you to come back to life." Ryan explained all the while bouncing on the spot. "You're not dead! That's why you need sleep, and you get tired! That's why you have emotions still and you react like a human! That's why!" 

"Holy shit!" Frank called out as both his and Gerard's jaw dropped to the ground, soon replaced with smiles. 

It was good, it was good, christ, things were working out. They could fix this. And if they fixed it then... then they could be together. Gerard knew they could. He needed to fix this, for him and Frank. Frank was the only thing he'd ever wanted so bad in his life. He wanted to do this for him, not for himself even. He had a chance to make his life good, with Frank by his side. He needed to do this.

"T-then how c-can I come b-back?" He stuttered in excitement, his hold on Frank's hand impossibly tight.

"Well, when this happens, there is a task placed upon you, to right something which has been wronged or some shit." Ryan stumbled over his words as he rushed to say them all while he grabbed the book from the coffee table "You just need to figure out what the task is and then complete it. And you'll come back!" 

Gerard felt almost like crying. Tears of happiness, of course. He didn't know what the task was, sure, but after they got rid of the ghost he had plenty of time to figure it out! And Ryan would help, surely. And Frank would too. There must be a hint which tells them what he needs to do. They'd figure it out, they would. Then Gerard would come back and he could be with Frank. Like he wanted.

"Look, I, I'm sorry to dash off so quickly, but I'm gonna look up more about this so that I can help with the task." Ryan said and quickly gathered up the book before he begun to dash out. Frank suddenly remembered something.

"Wait, Ryan!" He called out and Ryan turned to face him, looking like he really wanted to run out of there. He was impatient to work this out.

"I have a question." Frank mumbled.

"Well shoot with it, you don't need to put your hand up, I'm not your teacher!" Ryan sassed, wanting to get out of there.

"Well, why hasn't the spirit attacked us yet?" Frank rushed to say it so that he didn't hold up Ryan for longer and test his temper. "Like, we've been in here so long, and it has attacked before. Why isn't it?" 

Ryan stopped tapping his foot and smiled an easy smile as he blushed slightly "Well, I put a spell on you two. It only works for a little while but, um, as long as you two stick together it can't attack you." He explained sheepishly "Sorry I didn't tell you.. I.. I kind of got caught up." 

Frank slumped his shoulders in what could be described as mild shock, not expecting that response. "O-oh." He exclaimed.

"W-well, um.. thank you?" Gerard said, seeing as Frank was still frozen. 

The blush on Ryan's face was telling him something about the fact that he'd chosen to bind them like that. The wink Ryan shot him as he left said even more. The bastard must have done this on purpose. He wanted them to spend time together, didn't he? He knew they liked each other. Jesus, what didn't he know.

"Well, that's good then." Frank murmured after the door slammed shut, before he turned to face Gerard. 

Gerard was biting his lip with a large smile on his face, his beautiful hazel eyes sparkling with what Frank recognised as hope. He looked really pretty. As he always did, Frank told himself and a small smile spread on his lips.

"Frankie! That's...That's amazing! I can come back! I can really come back!" Gerard giggled as he motioned wildly with his hands. This was the best news they'd gotten in a while. 

Frank watched him as he continued to ramble. He really wanted to feel his soft lips. He wanted to feel him. He wanted to grab him by the waist and pull him close and watch his eyes flutter shut as he leaned closer, an invite for a kiss. He wanted to do it. And really, what was holding him back? There was no fear anymore, no fear of them never being able to be with each other. Even if this new information wasn't a guarantee of Gerard coming back, of them figuring it all out, it was all Frank needed to let himself truly, as he realised, begin to fall in love with Gerard. 

He didn't know him all that well yet, he knew that much. But between fighting a ghost and trying to realise what the fuck the real threat was, he hadn't gotten time to know him. All he knew was that he really wanted to know him. And most of all, he knew that he wanted him to be safe. He knew that he would protect him with his own life, that he wouldn't let any harm come to him, that he'd make sure that Gerard ended the day feeling happy and beautiful just like Frank knew that he deserved to feel.

In his life before his death, Gerard didn't have anyone like Frank and that much was evident. He didn't have anyone much in general, that was true, he had Mikey, but no one else. Everyone else had gotten sick of him, gotten sick of how mentally sick Gerard was and how he couldn't speak a sentence without a stutter breaking it and how he couldn't go out of his house without feeling scared for no apparent reason. But Frank knew that Gerard deserved a whole more than a bunch of people who just couldn't be bothered to care. Hee deserved the world and everything in it and if it was up to Frank he would honestly have it all. 

Frank was overwhelmed by how much the idea of waking up next to Gerard every day made him smile. He wanted to do everything with Gerard, wanted to travel the world, see every one of its sights, go on road trips, have picnics, watch the stars, go on dates, play music together, go to concerts, watch movies, cuddle close on the couch when it's cold, celebrate every holiday there is even if it doesn't belong to their religion. He even wanted to do the boring stuff, go to museums, go on long walks, play sports for fun. Because all those things seemed boring before he imagined doing them with Gerard there as well. He wanted to kiss him, make out with him, pull him close, feel his heart beat against him, feel him, take him, have him be his. He wanted it all. He wanted anything and everything that Gerard Way had to offer. And if that wasn't love, he didn't know what the hell was.

"--Mikey is gonna be so happy, he'll be so happy, Frankie!He'll--" with all those thoughts on his mind, Frank finally did it.

He leaned in close and suddenly Gerard's lips were against his, soft and warm and inviting, slightly open as he lost the words he was about to speak to a squeak of surprise. But it didn't take him very long to kiss back, his hands by his sides awkwardly. He didn't know what to do with them. It's not like he'd really kissed anyone before. Not really. Or at least not like with Frank. 

Frank smiled against Gerard's mouth as he started to move his lips slowly, his hands moving as well to grab Gerard's forearms and bring them up so that Gerard got the hint and wrapped them around Frank's neck, opening his mouth even more and moaning when Frank slipped his tongue inside.

Frank's hands finally found their place down on Gerard's waist where he'd wanted them to be for so long. He didn't even need to pull Gerard close before the man was doing it himself, pushing himself closer to Frank with a slight whimper. Frank groaned as well when their bodies met, melded together im a way that just felt right for them, the way it was supposed to be for so long. He knew that now. It was supposed to be and he knew it. He was sure Gerard knew it too, if he felt that same cliché electricity that Frank felt flowed in his veins. 

He pulled away a little while later, resting his forehead against Gerard's, shutting his eyes. Gerard dd the same, sighing softly. Frank could feel the tiny smirk on his lips. He brought one hand up from Gerard's waist to his cheek, stroking it softly as he spoke.

"We'll figure it out, little ghost. I swear to you, we will figure it all out together." He pecked his lips against Gerard's as Gerard nodded his head softly and tilted it to the side toward Frank's touch.

"And when we do.. if you want.. then I'd love for you to be mine." He suggested as his heart pounded nervously. 

Gerard immediately nodded his head again, more vigorously this time, and pulled back, his eyes opening, to look at Frank lovingly.

"God, yes. Y-yes please, Frank. I wanna be yours." He mumbled, scared, scared out of his goddamn mind, but not caring for the bad thoughts or the pounding of his chest. He ignored them. They wouldn't ruin this moment for him as they had every other time in his life.

Frank smiled and felt tears well up in his eyes. He blinked them away quickly and tried to hide the fact that he felt like crying over this. His voice gave him away when he spoke, cracking.

"Great. It's settled then. We figure this out, and then.. and then you're mine. And I'm yours." He confirmed, almost as if he was scared that this was all a very good dream.

"Yes. Exactly." Gerard giggled and pecked Frank's lips.

Yeah, Frank was definitely in love.


	11. Freaky Frank And His Little Ghost

It was the next day when they started their search around their house, which, as the days went on, proved to be a slow process. They had to be together at all times for Ryan's spell to work, and if they dared to leave each other, who knows what the stupid ghost would have in store for them. Gerard hated him. He hated him. He was making Frank nervous and he was making Gerard scared. He just wanted him gone.

They had looked everywhere they could in the house. Every room and every crevice, every corner of the most obvious room, the basement. But the ghost, of course, had hidden its achille's heel well. It was the 8th when they were looking over the basement again, Gerard suddenly opening his mouth and asking a question.

"So, this Doctor?" Frank hummed while rummaging through some boxes for anything that wasn't his or Gerard's "What do you know about him?" 

Frank sighed "Well," he started casually "Online I found out that he had gone crazy and began to butcher his patients. He had some sort of attic in the house where he would see his patients." He shrugged as if this conversation were casual.

"And this ghost hunter guy we met, Bob." Gerard had never heard of Bob, it occurred to Frank "He said that the Doctor got killed by police who stormed into his house after he had gone on a killing spree against people who killed his daughter." 

Gerard stopped rummaging for a second to look at Frank. "Well.. how do we know which one is true?" He asked, so gentle and quiet. Frank was reminded of a little kid at the look of curiosity on Gerard's face.

"For all we know they both are." He explained gently "Maybe some of the details were added on, but the essence of the stories remain. Maybe some people killed his daughter, he went crazy with grief." Frank was having way too much fun with this theory. Don't blame him. He liked horror.

"And that's when he started to kill his patients. So one day the police showed up and, admittedly wrongly, shot him instead of arresting him. And now he's stuck here." Frank shrugged again as he finished and immersed himself back into searching.

Gerard didn't say anything. He continued to search but his eyes were clouded over as he thought of the story Frank had told him and went over it in his head. It sounded like a sad story. A sad story for a mad ghost which wanted to take out the madness it felt on him and Frankie. Gerard huffed at the thought. The ghost wouldn't get very far. He may have made Frankie throw up but Frankie was very strong! He would protect him, and himself. 

Gerard smiled widely at the thought. Frankie was gonna be his. His sweetheart. He would be Frank's. Frank's baby. Frank's little ghost. No matter how much he thought of that he never got tired of the idea of him and Frank living ordinary lives together. Waking up in the morning to go to work and coming home to each other. Watching movies together and kissing and hugging and.. and doing other things too.

Gerard blushed at the other thought he had. That was a naughty thought. He didn't get them a lot but just looking at Frank did things to him. He frowned to himself as he thought of how childish his string of thought was.

He had found himself grow more and more childish as days went by in this house as a ghost, almost as if he was repressing back to a state which allowed him to feel carefree and innocent. It was weird. To him, at least, it was weird. He didn't want Frankie to think it was weird too. What if he did? Gerard looked uo from where he had stopped searching and looked at Frank.

"Hey, uh.. hey Frankie?" He said cautiously and Frank turned around to face him.

"Yeah, little ghost?" He asked as he gave up on what he was looking at to come to Gerard and put his hands on his hips.

"Do you... do you think it's weird that sometimes.. sometimes I act like this?" He asked, hoping Frank understood what 'this' was.

Frank looked confused initially and stayed silent before he suddenly looked like he realised what Gerard was talking about "You mean how you're a bit little sometimes?" He asked.

Gerard nodded his head a few times as he looked down at Frank's chest, not his face, putting his hands on Frankie's chest as well and feeling his heartbeat. It was comforting.

There was a bit of silence as Frank considered the question and thought of the perfect way to answer. He didn't want to word himself incorrectly and make Gerard think he was being rude, or mean, or that Gerard had done something wrong. And this was new for Frank, a man with no filter who usually didn't do very well with his words.

"No.. no, I don't think it's weird. It's like; your way of coping. And I understand that. And I think it's quite cute." He chuckled and pecked Gerard's cheek

A small smile appeared on Gerard's lips immediately as his cheeks went slightly pink. He leant in and put his head on Frank's chest, listening to his heartbeat more intently as he wrapped his arms around him.

"Thank you, Frankie.. you're the best boyfriend ever." He muttered before he realised what he'd said and pulled away to look at Frank's reaction.

"I mean, if you wanna be my boyfriend.." he quickly corrected himself "I mean, I just thought.. since...what happened a few days ago--"

Frank cut him off "Yes. I'd love to be your boyfriend, sweetie." He giggled at Gerard's adorableness. 

"Oh!" Gerard bounced up and down slightly on his toes, looking delighted. "That.. that's great! That.. that makes me very happy, Frankie." He admitted and Frank found himself smiling impossibly wider than he already was.

He leaned in slowly and pecked Gerard's lips, not expecting to be pulled right back in by Gerard and for the kiss to be deepened. He didn't mind at all, though, only holding Gerard closer and deepening the kiss further, his tongue licking at Gerard's lips as an invite. Gerard opened his mouth and let Frank's tongue come up against his, no matter how icky and wet the kiss was. He'd never kissed like this before. He liked it.

Frank groaned as Gerard sucked on his tongue and his hold on Gerard's sides tightened. Gerard also made a sound of pleasure at Frank's almost possessive hold and came closer so that he was right up against Frank, their bodies touching. It felt.. nice. Gerard liked it. It gave him funny feelings in his tummy to be this close to Frank. No matter where they were while they made out. He didn't mind it was the dirty, old basement, it could have been the attic where the Doctor killed all those men for all he cared--

Gerard gasped and pulled away quickly, his eyes wide. Frank looked at him, concerned.

"Little ghost? Are you okay? Gee?!" Frank asked a few times as Gerard was spaced out.

"Frankie!" Gerard smiled and laughed in glee "Oh my god! An attic! He worked in an attic! I didn't know this house had an attic!" 

Frank looked a bit confused "I don't see your point.."

Gerard rolled his eyes "Stop being silly! If you wanted to hide an object that would lead to your death, wouldn't your attic, which isn't accessible from the house easily anymore, be the perfect place?" 

Frank's eyes widened "You're right, holy shit." 

Gerard looked very proud of himself. "Of course I am."

Frank then looked sceptical as he thought over the situation. After what happened with the doctor, they must have shut the attic somehow so that it wasn't accessible anymore. Found the place those murders had happened 'too creepy'. Frank bet that they would have shut the hallway as well if it was shut-able, since Gerard died there.

"Well.. how do we get there?" Frank questioned and Gerard shrugged.

"There must be a door on the ceiling somewhere. I bet it has one of those fold out ladders. They must have sealed it from there. But if we find it we can cut it open, probably." Frank suggested and Gerard nodded.

"A-are you sure that's doable, Frankie?" Gee said softly, not wanting to doubt Frank was somewhat scared about the plan.

"Of course it is, little ghost!" Frank kissed Gerard's head. "Don't worry, I'm strong, okay? I'll open it up for us once we find it." 

Gerard reluctantly agreed and then the search started all over the second level of the house, them running around with their heads tilted up constantly until they found it, a square on the ceiling. It must have been shut up with plaster around the edges. But you could tell it had been there. And it was in the bedroom as well. Or, well, the room Frank and Gerard had chosen as a bedroom. Who knew what it was before. Gerard shivered at the thought of how many sleeps he had with that room right above him. And no one had mentioned it when he'd bought the house. Seriously, how dishonest were realtors? That Vera chick was still on his mind. 

"Would a knife work with that?" Gerard asked, looking at the sealed up attic.

"Probably." Frank was examining it as well. They ran off to the kitchen together and came back as soon as possible with the biggest and sharpest knife they could find.

"This should do the trick." Frank said as he brought a chair underneath and, surprisingly, was able to reach the ceiling. 

Gerard could only just look on with a scared expression on his face and warn Frankie multiple times to be careful and watch out and not fall over. Frank didn't comment on it though. It was cute how Gerard was looking out for him. While only a little while ago he had tried to scare him and to make him go away by drawing him 'scary' pictures.

It took him a while and a lot of effort and muscle work but Frank finally managed to get the seal between the ceiling and the square to break and he was able to push the square off and away, opening to an immensely scary looking darkness. He gulped, reaching inside as Gerard squeaked nervously and, sure enough, finding a ladder, wooden and mangled, but still a ladder. He tugged on it and it folded out weirdly, making him fall over with a thump.

Gerard rushed over to him quickly with a cry of worry. Frank was making really distressed sounds.

"F-Frankie! Are you okay?" He asked as he sat down next to Frank.

Said man groaned and rolled over so that he was facing Gerard, all the while smiling like a fucking madman and breathing heavily.

"That was fucking awesome." He breathed and Gerard giggled to himself.

"Let's get you up." Gerard said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at Frank's antics. He should have been scared of that fall like Gerard was. Instead the silly thought it was cool. Gerard didn't even want to think about what could have happened to him.

He helped Frank sit up and then helped him stand up, only having to support him for a second before Frank had stopped feeling a bit faint and had been able to get himself to stand by himself. 

"Let's get up there." He muttered and Gerard gulped but nodded.

Frank rushed to his bedside table and got out a flashlight he kept in there, saying to Gerard he would go in first to make sure it was safe, but Gerard would have to come up quickly after as well if they wanted the spell to work and for the ghost not to get them.

Gerard had listened intently and nodded once Frank was finished, saying he would do exactly as Frank had said.

And that was what happened. Frank opened the flashlight and climbed up the creaky ladder, looking around bravely up there. The attic was huge. It was actually very neat too. It hadn't been left as a doctor's room, it'd been cleared out, but there were some clutters of things covered in dust in the corners of the room, probably rat's nests at this point. Frank pulled himself up in and Gerard quickly followed him, sticking close to him and hugging his free arm close. He was scared.

"Hey, you don't need to be worried." Frank took a minute to coo. "We're fine. Remember? He can't hurt us, not while we're together." 

Gerard took a few deep breaths and nodded, his tight hold on Frank's arm loosening as he looked around. He spotted a string hanging from a lightbulb at the top of the room and pointed it out to Frank.

"Do you think that still works?" He asked and Frank shrugged but walked closer, tugging on the string gently.

The light did turn on, bathing the room in a yellowish glow, creepy and uncomfortable for some reason. The light flickered a lot as well and Frank wondered for how long this doctor had roamed inside this house. From what time in the 20th century was he exactly? Bob had said the other guy had died twenty years ago. That would mean that the doctor would have had to have died at least before 1996. Who knows how long he had been there before the other guy. How many residents had come and gone. He could have been here since the 30s or 20s for all they know, just roaming around the house, a lost soul. Frank felt almost sorry for the man.

He hadn't exactly died a fair death, and maybe if his daughter hadn't been killed, unfairly so, he would have never done the things he did. But for all he knew there was never any daughter. The man was just plain crazy. But Frank wanted to believe that his theory was true. He wanted this man to be someone who he wanted to free instead of kill once and for all. He wanted him to be a man that he could pain a picture of in his brain, one he could have compassion for. Not just a monster with no mercy for anyone. Frank didn't want him to be that, no matter how much he had hurt him.

He needed to free this man. He had spent so long in this house, his soul defiling itself until there was nothing left of him anymore, not truly. And Frank didn't wish that fait on anyone.

They had to set him free.

"Let's, um.." he snapped himself out of his thoughts and squeezed Gerard's hand as he turned to face him with a small smile "Let's start looking."

Gerard nodded and moved to some pile of rubbish, starting to search through it without much hesitation. Frank decided to look over him for just a second before he himself would go on to search a different pile, hoping he wouldn't find a rat instead of a cursed object.

Gerard didn't deserve this either. He deserved to be happy. Frank honestly really wanted to make him happy. 

He was going to free the doctor and then he would help Gerard find his task and complete it. He would stay by his side no matter how long it took. He would have him come back.

And then they would be together.

No Doctor.

No ghosts.

Just them.

Just them and their happiness.

Frank had a smile on his face at the thought as he searched.


	12. Did You Really Think Things Would Be Fine?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: violence, homohobic language

The search up in the attic was raging on like a teenager's hormones a little over two hours after it had started.

Frank had searched through every pile of filth that was in that room imaginable, probably touched lots of mouse crap too, but he didn't give a shit. He didn't give a shit about anything other than the fact that they had found fucking nothing. How could they be missing this? What the hell were they doing wrong? 

He stopped at some point and lay down with a groan of defeat. Gerard looked up from where he was also searching with a look of amusement on his face. He walked over to Frank with a small smile.

"Hey Frankie." He greeted "The floor's probably really dirty. Just saying."

Frank grimaced and shot up. Never mind not caring about the mouse poop. He cared. This was his favourite jacket.

"I'm so done with this search." He whined and Gerard gigged at him "Don't laugh at me!" 

Gerard was actually kind of happy that he wasn't the only one doing the whining for once. Actually, he was kind of happy that Frankie existed and had come into his after-life. Or sort of after-life.

Whatever it was. He was thankful for Frankie.

"Frankie, we can take a break if you want?" He suggested "We've been searching for ages." He over-exaggerated. 

Frank laughed at how cute Gerard was being and patted his head softly, blushing when Gerard leaned into the touch and almost purred like a cat.

"Maybe that's a good idea.. we could go sleep a little, I feel like we deserve it." He commented, looking around the room as he continued to stroke Gerard's hair softly and comfortingly "I mean, look at this place. We've looked almost everywhere. And anyway, the room isn't gonna go anywhere, we can come back afte--"

He was cut off by his pocket vibrating. Someone was calling him. He shot Gerard a weird look and then picked it up.

"Hello--?"

"Frank!" Ryan's panicked voice rang through the phone "Jesus, you two need to get out of that house!" 

"What?" Frank screeched "What the hell is going--"

"I don't know, I don't know, the spell! It's.. it's fading! I don't know why or how, but I can feel it! I'm losing my connection with you two, I can't feel you anymore!"

Frank looked at Gerard with a look of pure fear on his face. Gerard's eyes went wide "Frank.. what--"

"What do we do, Ryan?" Frank didn't answer Gerard, knowing that they didn't have much time.

"You two need to get out of there and come here! I'll renew the spell once you two are here but I can't even attempt to do it far away." Ryan said and Frank quickly turned to Gerard, not bothering to shut his phone, even.

"Gerard, we need to get your sketchbook and we need to get out of h--"

He was cut off by the room getting a whole lot colder than it was before, and the shadow of a corner of the room suddenly somehow pulled into itself and formed a shape, two eyes opening, red an sinister. Frank grabbed Gerard's hand, his mouth gaping, and walked back slowly.

He was reminded of the thing that made him throw up blood. The warning it had given him. He gulped as he tightened his hold on Gerard's hand. Gerard whimpered softly as the figure stepped out of the shadow it had come from.

It was as if, all of a sudden, everything that had made the figure seem devilish had been stripped away, and out of the shadows walked a man who looked as normal as Frank and Gerard, but more old fashioned, in a white coat that had blood down the front, three holes (bullets holes) on his clothes on his chest. There was a grin on his lips, however, that made the change from an evil creature to a normal looking man seem less fake and more smooth. It wasn't very hard to believe he was the creature who had done all those things to Frank.

Gerard, who had seen the doctor before, was still surprised. When he had been confronted by him he was in the form they had seen in the shadow, red eyes and shadowy, dark body. But now he had chosen to show himself for who he really was. At least, Gerard guessed that the ghost had a choice of what form he wanted to be in, and could change what he looked like at will. It might be a spell, one that Gerard could do too if he knew how to. Gerard was sure that after all these years of living, or haunting, this house, he had figured out a whole bunch of things that no one else knew. When you had all the time you wanted in the whole wide world, of course you'd have time to learn the secrets of the arts you did not know existed as a human. But that wasn't good for Gerard and Frank, of course it wasn't. A human and a pathetic excuse of a half-ghost were nothing against a dark magic wielding vengeful spirit, or whatever the fuck Ryan had said this thing was.

"Frank? Frank! Can you hear me?!" Ryan's voice was shouting from the phone before the line miraculously went dead.

"I'll have to give it to that queer medium, that Ryan." The doctor spoke and Frank and Gerard were frozen, willing themselves to just move and get out of there, but knowing it would get them no where.

"It took a long time to figure out how to break his goddamn hex, his protection spell." He growled, clenching his teeth and walking slowly forward toward Frank and Gerard, who in turn took more steps back.

"But it was only a matter of time before I broke it, and you must have known that." The ghost almost teased, smirking and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I mean, you didn't really think you'd escape me, did you? That you'd go along your merry way, undisturbed by me, finding the way to get rid of me so you two could live your lives doing whatever you fairies do?" He jibed at them and Frank got angry, while Gerard only got more scared "That you'd figure out how to bring dear Gerard back? Complete his task and get to live your happy little lives?" He chuckled sinisterly.

"No. That's not how this world works." He dropped his grin to be replaced with a nonchalant expression "I wish it was, actually. Maybe I would have lived a fair life, then. Maybe things wouldn't have been the way they are." He looked away for a second and Frank almost thought he saw remorse and pain flash in the doctor's eyes, before he shook his head and turned to face them again 

"But that's all a dream." He stated simply "And I'm going to show that to you right now." 

His hand whipped out and Gerard was flying off against a wall, hitting it hard with a whimper and a loud groan. 

"Gerard!" Frank screamed at his little ghost's body on the ground. He hadn't passed out, but he was winded from the hit of his head against the wall. 

Frank was torn about which way to march to now. He knew that he could walk toward Gerard, or the Doctor. Neither option would get him anywhere, he knew. Neither would work out well. It's not like the ghost would let him get close to Gee anyway. He'd throw him away as soon as he was near him. But it's not like Frank could somehow do any damage to the ghost. 

But he made his choice, within a split second. He was jumping toward the ghost with a battle cry, his hands wrapping around the man's waist and attempting to take him down, only to realise that the ghost had gone see  
through and Frank had fallen to the floor.

"You can't beat me, Frank. I'm sorry to say it." The ghost said and Frank felt some unknown force pick him up off the floor of the room, throwing him a against a wall as well but holding him there tightly, making Frank wince at the pain.

"Now, look." The ghost walked closer so that he could talk to Frank face to face. "It's nothing personal I have against you, here."

Frank could barely pay attention to him, the force that was holding him up applying gentle pressure to his throat so he felt slightly lightheaded, not enough to pass out but just enough to make his lungs scream. 

"It's just been so long in here and I.." the ghost continued, almost talking to itself at this point "I just have to have some fun around here, you know? My thirst, if you may, for human blood and life and breath is just too much. I would control it if I could, I swear to you." He didn't sound very genuine to Frank "I'm very sorry."

Frank made a choking noise when he tried to utter some words to speak back, to spit out a 'fuck you'. To spit out full stop. But nothing came out. Frank was powerless and he was going to fucking die, and he couldn't even control his eyes enough to make them shoot to Gerard's direction so he could seem him slumped on the ground, too dizzy and scared to get up, clutching his head.

Gerard was trying to concentrate on getting up but everything was fuzzy. The world around him was shaking and he wasn't sure if he was shaking or if his head was just pounding. But he hated himself. He hated himself because once again, he was too weak. Too weak to get the fuck up and help Frank, too pathetic to do anything other than sit on the floor and whimper in pain. That's all he'd ever been able to do and that's all he would do now. He knew that, and he hated it. He hated himself. He hated that he wanted to help but his body wouldn't cooperate. He just fucking hated himself, more than anything. More than he hated the doctor. More than he hated the way Frank's choked sounds were echoing in his brain over and over again, bounding around on the inside of his skull and making him sway.

"Now, Frankie." The ghost's voice was teasing "I'm gonna get Gerard over there and have a little talk to him." He chuckled and stroked Frank's cheek "I made a promise that I would make sure he payed if he wasn't on my side. How does that make you feel? The thought of what I'm gonna do to your ghost boyfriend?" Frank thrashed away from the man's hold, his face scrunching up in what could be described only as pure loathing and hatred.

Jesus, what the hell was he going to do to Gerard? Frank didn't even want to think about how much even a small little thing that ghost could do to Gerard would affect his innocent, impressionable and sensitive ghost. He didn't want anything to happen to him, no, he couldn't let that happen. His legs thrashed against the wall in attempts to kick the man, but it didn't work. Not at all.

"It's over, Frank." The ghost whispered with a wide smile and then the force around Frank's throat tightened until he couldn't breathe at all.

Frank's eyes went wide and he tried to scream but nothing came out. His body went numb and his eyesight bled with black at the edges, running to the front of his eyes until Frank could see nothing but black, and soon the force was lifted and he fell to the ground, only to be enveloped by more darkness, passing out on the dirty floor beneath him, unable to do anything when the ghost grabbed Gerard and transported him to God know where.

**

Frank woke up a little while lated from Ryan shaking his body.

"Frank! Frank, jesus, wake up!" He was shouting at him and Frank finally felt his body drift into consciousness, his body flinging him up (much to the distress of his lungs and head) once he remembered what had happened. 

He got to his feet quickly and turned to Ryan with wide eyes.

"Oh no.. Ooh, no, he took him." He muttered and his eyes filled with tears.

"He took Gerard, Frank." Ryan confirmed, nodding his head sadly.

Frank felt the tears which had accumulated at the edges of his eyes drift down his face slowly as he bit his lip to keep cries of pain back. Gerard. His baby. His little ghost, with that creature. God knows what was happening to him.

"N-no." Frank spat through the teeth-rotting pain, his fists clenched as his teeth biting the inside of his cheeks so hard that he felt blood spill into his mouth.

"No!" He shouted this time and Ryan didn't even say anything, knowing none of his words would comfort Frank in his state of almost grief.

"No, he couldn't have!" Frank shouted again and kicked around at a pile of dirt near him with a shout "He couldn't fucking have!" 

He whirled around the room like mad, almost as if his senses had been intensified. He turned to Ryan with a determined look on his face, his eyes blazing like a fire as he thought of Gerard. Thought of how he needed to save his baby.

"We're gonna find that item." Frank walked up to Ryan and grabbed him by the shoulders.

Ryan had never seen Frank look so angry or determined before. He knew this was the real fucking deal.

"And we're going to fucking expel that motherfucker right back to where he came from." Frank announced with a growl and then he let go of Ryan's shoulders and continued his search, this time more hurried and rushed, not caring for keeping the rook intact as he threw shit from one corner to the other, turning the room upside down. 

He was going to fucking save Gerard. He was going to fucking save Gerard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my friend @xoginasfs <3


	13. It's Too Cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: violence, homophobic language and non-con elements

When Gerard woke up, he wasn't sure exactly where he was,

But his body shivered, and the absence of Frank had him both relieved and in desperate need of crying a lot.

He realised the ghost had taken him, he knew that much. He also knew the ghost hadn't taken Frank as well. He was glad for that. But the selfish part of him wished he was here with him, next to him. Frank's kisses were comforting and warm and Gerard wasn't warm. He was so cold. Wherever he was, it was very cold and he hated it, he hated it. It smelt weird.

He was so scared. He just wanted Frank, he wanted Frank to hold him and kiss him like he had the past few days. Like.. like a couple. Like they were now. Like they wanted to be.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a voice he recognised all too much. And it filled him with dread.

"Nice little room, right?" The doctor came in sight, in the form that scared Gerard most. The devilish-like form he had not gotten used to at all.

"W-where are we?" Gerard stuttered out, trying not to cry.

He knew he couldn't leave the house and he knew the other ghost couldn't leave either, so they had to still be inside his and Frankie's home. But he'd never seen this room before in his life. It was so cold.. so eerie. So dark. He hated it. He hated it more than anything. 

"Well, you see, dear Gerard." The ghost started. Story time, Gerard thought.

"I built this room down here once, a long time ago. When I was still a young man, alive. When I started killing." He said with a sinister tone, a smirk on his lips. It made Gerard shiver with absolute disgust.

"I needed a place to hide the bodies, obviously." He continued with a chuckle and Gerard properly looked around him for the first time, seeing what he dreaded to see.

Skeletons. Fucking skeletons, all around him, everywhere. The scent he had noticed previously was suddenly able to be named as the smell of death. Dead bodies, lives trapped down here that the doctor had mutilated, making sure they didn't stand a chance at all. Dead. All of them dead. So many bones, so many humans, so many lives. They had been right in Gerard's house, in some secret room, right next to him and he'd never known.

Gerard screamed.

"No one is gonna hear you, sweetheart. I made sure of that." The doctor commented as he saw the terror in Gerard's eyes. He fed off it "I mean, I also made sure no smell ever escaped this room, as well as sound. I didn't need anyone finding out what was going on in this house and not relying on my services anymore." He motioned to the room around him.

His words fell to almost deaf ears, as Gerard had fallen into a pit of hysteria and a panic attack, which felt so foreign after so long with Frank to calm him down, so long where he had escaped the stupid panic attacks. His breathing sped up. The world around him blurred, his hands shook. He was swallowing roughly every few seconds to keep vomit down but he was fighting a losing battle, and he did end up throwing up. Or he would have thrown up if he had anything inside his stomach. He dry retched as he held himself up against the wall.

"So, rest assured that your dear 'Frankie' will not hear you, no matter how loud you scream." The doctor finished "Which I'm glad about, I was planning on keeping your screams strictly for myself." As he said that, his form changed into the more human looking one. 

Gerard managed, somehow, to calm himself down enough to pay attention to him and answer, even, spit out a choppy sentence.

"W-what are you g-gonna do to m-me?" He whimpered and he could feel the grin on the doctor's lips.

"Oh honey, I'm gonna punish you." He walked closer and Gerard pushed himself against the wall to get away. But he had no where to run. No bravery to make him act. No Frankie to save him.

"I told you that if you didn't obey me and do everything I say that I would hurt you." He reminded Gerard as he came up to him and grabbed him by the face, pulling him closer so they were face to face. Gerard whimpered.

"You remember that?" The ghost asked and shook Gerard when he didn't speak "Answer me." He commanded and Gerard quickly said a 'yes'.

"What a good little boy." The ghost teased and Gerard felt tears well up in his eyes. "Now, as I said, I'm going to go through with my promise."

Gerard sniffled and really really tried to hold back his tears, but it wasn't working.

"I'm going to fucking ruin you--" The ghost continued and Gerard was helpless.

"Please stop" he begged, through tears.

"--I'm going to make you wish you were never born." The ghost finished off and Gerard sobbed loudly. He wanted the doctor's hand off his face. He wanted Frank. He wanted Frank's hugs and kisses.

"Stop.." he whispered through his sobs as he put his hand over the doctor's hand and tried to drag it off his face, but he had no power.

There was a while of no talking after that, just Gerard's small sobs echoing through the room. He was over and done with, he knew it. The ghost would kill him off, he would die. For real this time. And if he didn't, he'd put through a whole world of pain with no escape at all.

"I heard you can come back to life." The ghost sneered after a little while. 

Gerard didn't comment, but he cried out when the hold on his jaw tightened "That you can come back if you complete some task." The ghost continued and Gerard forcibly nodded this time.

"Is that so?" The doctor smirked and Gerard didn't like where this was going "Well I take pleasure in knowing that that will never happen."

Gerard felt like all the hope he had left inside him was fading. This was really it. He would go, for real. He'd leave Mikey for a second time. He'd leave Ray. Ryan. Frank. He'd leave his Frankie. This stupid ghost would torture him and torture him until Gerard begged for him to kill him, to let him go, to stop this misery. And then, he would comply. He would off Gerard and leave his body down there to rot. Would he even leave a body behind? How did it work? It didn't matter. Gerard's soul would be lost inside this room, wherever it was. No one would ever find him. Not Mikey. Not Frank. No one would ever find him, just like no one ever found the rest of the bodies which littered the room, no one had ever managed to get in here and free their souls from these four walls. Why would Gerard be any different?

"Nice little room, isn't it?" The doctor said as he saw Gerard look around him. 

He let him go and Gerard slumped thankfully against the wall. He didn't want that man's dirty, killing hands on him. Not even near him. He wished Frank could come and wipe away the other ghost's touch, make Gerard forget him.

"I built it under the basement, actually. Hidden very well. Obviously, I won't tell you the way out, or how one would get in. Don't want you getting any ideas." The doctor chuckled. 

Gerard breathed heavily and shut his eyes. He didn't want this to be reality.

"Now, how about we get stared here?" The doctor said and moved closer again. Gerard wanted to spit on him.

"What would you like me to start with?" He asked and Gerard knew he wasn't actually expecting an answer. "I could go the old fashioned way and throw a few punches, if you wish? Or I could lay you down on an operating table and open you up, show you what your insides look like?" 

Gerard whimpered and he felt tears sting his eyes again. He couldn't take this.

"Or, even better," His hand came up to grab Gerard by the hair, forcing him to look right into his cold eyes. Gerard whimpered at the pinpricks of pain on his skull.

"We could go for something more.. personal?" It took a second for Gerard to register what he meant but the realisation coupled with a hand reaching down to cup him through his pants made him start to cry all over again.

He didn't care if he was being weak, if he was showing weakness to the doctor. He didn't care. He just wanted this to end. He wanted his hands off him, his disgusting, dirty hands. He didn't want him touching him at all, let alone in this way. And this way that he had only ever thought of Frank touching him. But when he imagined Frank touching him like this it wasn't this way. It didn't make him feel horrible inside, it didn't make him want to thrash and cry and throw up all at the same time. Frank's touch, the way he'd thought of it, had been loving and gentle. And everything Gerard had wanted. Not like this. He didn't want this. He didn't want this, he didn't--

A loud crash sounded from somewhere in the house and the doctor was startled, pulling his hands away from Gerard. Gerard almost cried out in relief.

The doctor growled and looked up, anger radiating from every inch of his being. 

"What the fuck.." he muttered. He was suddenly worried. What if those two faggots were getting up to something? Ryan and Frank? He looked down at Gerard again.

"You stay right here, you fucking whore. Or else." He muttered and Gerard just looked at him with wide eyes.

The doctor shut his own and without even the tiniest of sounds, he had disappeared.

Gerard looked around the room immediately. It was fucking disgusting. So horrible. He needed to get out of here. He needed to move his ass and get out of here before the ghost came back and decided to.. to touch him like he did before. But worst.

Then he was suddenly struck by a thought. A secret room.. that no one but the doctor knew about. What other place more perfect than this than to hide the item which carries your spirit inside it?

Gerard got excited at the idea immediately. He was in here, by himself, nothing was holding him back from searching this whole goddamn room for as long as he could.

"It's what Frankie would do," he mumbled to himself to give himself strength "He would be brave. It's time for me to be brave too.." 

He immediately took a deep breath to calm himself down. He needed to mentally prepare himself for probably touching a whole bunch of bones. A whole bunch of dead things. He didn't take too long to himself like this, knowing the doctor could return at any moment. The noise which had distracted him would only keep him away for so long. With that thought, he got searching.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long to find it. 

And it was very obvious when he did.

It was a picture, laying on top of a pile of something. He didn't want to know what the hell that something was. He just quickly grabbed the picture and moved away from the things it was on so that he could observe it. 

In the middle of the frame there was a little girl, in the arms of an older man. She looked to be about three or so. She was smiling widely, looking so happy, her bright curly hair a mess, her small hands grabbing at the arms around her. The man's face, however, had been scribbled on. Gerard couldn't tell who he was, but he guessed that he was her father. The photo was faded at the edges and the whole of it was a dirty, horrible shade of brown. It wasn't very good quality at all, but the reason why was made evident when Gerard flipped it over and saw that on the back it said "Violet and Edward, 1935".

Gerard reminded himself of the doctor, and how Frankie had told him that his daughter had died. And that was when he had sunk into depression and eventually hysteria and madness. 

Could this be him? Could this photo be a photo of the monster that Gerard knew but before he had become just that, just innocently with his daughter, right in this house? Gerard realised that that was just what it was. But then he pondered to himself. How does a man lose himself so much that he becomes a vengeful ghost, a spirit with no point other than to destroy, and even before that, how does one lose himself so bad that he begins to butcher others, that he becomes evil. That he forgets who he is.

The reason why his soul had latched onto just this was very evident. It reminded him of his humanity. Something, Gerard guessed by the scribbles on his face, that he didn't like to be reminded of, yet probably yearned for.

He was just lost. It wasn't his fault that he'd lost his mind.

Gerard found himself wondering how things would have been if the doctor's daughter hadn't been murdered. And he wasn't all that scared of the ghost anymore. He only pitied him. He was just a man, one who had lost his path. Gerard wished something better for him, something--

There was another crash and some screams this time and Gerard bit his lip in worry. Things couldn't be good up there. He needed to get out.

He searched the room relentlessly, looking for an exit somewhere, but found none. No door, no buttons, no latches, no switches, nothing. He was about to give up and cry when he had a sudden thought.

The doctor could pass through walls, couldn't he? 

He looked up at the ceiling. He was under the basement, he reminded himself of the doctor's words.

If the doctor could do it.. what the hell was stopping him? What the hell was stopping him from standing on something and reaching up through the floor of the basement?

Nothing. Nothing at fucking all.

Gerard grabbed a chair from nearby and dragged it to the middle of the room, standing on it. Thank God the ceiling was low. He could touch it just by standing on the chair. He shut his eyes and took deep breaths.

He thought of Frank.

Frank's pretty eyes and smile and his nice lips and his beautiful tattoos and stupid hair and kind, gentle hands and how their caress had left Gerard feeling so amazing inside, like coming home for the first time in so many years. He thought of how it felt to kiss him, how it made Gerard feel on the inside. How nice Frank's soft lips had felt against his and how he wanted to kiss him again and again and never stop kissing him at all. 

He thought of being happy. 

An emotion that only Frank had been able to truly show him. He thought of coming back to life and living with Frank, in another house far away from this one, maybe in another country even. They'd have a lot of dogs and cats and they might even have kids, if Frank wanted them. Gerard would try to watch scary movies with Frank even though they scared him so much, and he'd try to get into the scary, loud music that Frank liked. He'd go outside. He'd leave the house. They'd go to the beach together and get ice cream. They'd walk hand in hand. Frank's rough hand would feel so good in Gerard's.

Gerard would draw again, sell his art. Frank would take his photos and sell them too. He'd take photos of Gerard as well and Gerard would tell him not to, but Frank would tell him that all pretty things need to have photos taken of them and Gerard would blush like a madman and kiss him.

He thought of the happiness. How it glowed from inside him. He thought of nothing but Frank. He wanted to be suffocated by Frank's everything, just Frank, all around him. He wanted to feel and taste nothing but Frank. He wanted Frank's hands. He wanted him. And nothing more. And nothing less.

He wanted to feel Frank's mouth on his neck, and his chest, and lower, and he wanted to hold him close and tight and to be his forever and he stifled by the sounds Frank would make and the things he would say as he and Gerard became one. He wanted him more than anything.

Gerard didn't realise he'd started to cry until he was. His hands were still solidly against the ceiling. He didn't feel like this was working.

"Goddamn it, Frank." He choked through sobs "I.. I love you, I fucking love you." He pushed hard against the wall in frustration.

"I love you.." he continued to sob and sob and tears ran down his face and he was sure he looked like a proper, ugly mess but he didn't care because he loved Frank and Frank needed him.

His hands passed through the ceiling.


	14. It's Over

Gerard wasted no time looking around the basement when he ended up in there, checking inside his pockets for the photo before he ran as quickly as he could back up to the attic.

He was faced with a sight he wasn't really ready for.

There was quite a bit of blood on the floor, in seemingly a trail which lef back directly to Ryan's head.

Ryan was slumped at the wall, knocked out cold with his mouth hanging open and blood flowing freely from his head. Gerard's first instinct was to run to him immediately. He'd bled a lot, the blood was fucking everywhere, Gerard was sure he wouldn't last long like this. Not that he knew much about how much blood to bleed was too much blood.

He didn't rush to Ryan because when he looked up he was faced with Doctor Leighton holding Frank against a wall and punching him repeatedly, Frank's face bloody and winded.

"Frank!" Gerard screamed and Dr Leighton turned around and growled at the sight of Gerard, looking scared but determined all the while, his greasy hair hanging in front of his eyes.

"How the fuck did you get out?!" Dr Leighton shouted and the distraction was enough for Frank to punch him and continue to do so, trying to fight back in any way he could while having the disadvantage of not being a ghost that can use magic.

That was enough for Gerard to run to Ryan and pull off his jumper, pressing the fabric against Ryan's head to try and stop the bleeding all the while shouting at him in a crazy attempt to make him wake up. They were nothing without him, they might have the item but only Ryan knew what the hell to do from here.

"Ryan!" Gerard tried to not cry very hard "Rayn, wake up! I have the item!" He said and Ryan groaned, making Gerard break a small smile and a huff of relief. 

"Ryan, please get u--" Gerard was cut off by an unknown force throwing him back against a wall.

Gerard cried out as he was pressed against the wall harshly and he realised as he opened his eyes that Dr Leighton had managed to get away from Frank by kneeling him in the stomach and making him bend in half in pain. He was now right in front of Gerard, not looking like he was planning on letting him go anytime soon.

"I gave you a chance," He whispered "To join me. To be on the winning side of this fight, but you decided to join.." he shot a look to Frank "Him, instead. The stupid human."

Gerard whimpered and tried to push him away. This situation reminded him of the basement just ten minutes ago and he hated it. He didn't ever want to feel like this again, so trapped and violated. He didn't want that evil man's hands anywhere near him any more, he had been too close to him for too long and Gerard just wanted him to let go. Just wanted to be strong enough to push him away and run to Frank and make sure he's okay, rush to Ryan and get him up.

"Did you really think you had a chance?" Dr Leighton continued, set on hurting Gerard mentally as much as he could.

From behind him Frank was staggering around the room in pain, grabbing a dusty vase which was lying in a pile of other such rubbish and walking toward where Gerard and Dr Leighton were slowly, pure anger on his face.

"Did you really think you, a band of fucking idiots, could beat me? You should have followed my instructions, given in. That way I wouldn't have to kill y--"

The vase landed on top of his head, breaking, accompanied by the sound of Frank screaming "Get the fuck away from him, you asshole!" 

Dr Leighton was stunned and pulled his hands away enough for Frank to grab Gerard by the forearm and pull him so that he was slightly behind Frank, Frank standing protectively while clutching a remaining sharp part of the vase in front of him like a weapon.

"You don't fucking touch him, you monster." Frank growled as Dr Leighton gained his senses again and stood up straight, staring at Frank with a menacing grin.

"Too late for that, Frankie." Dr Leighton mocked in what was supposed to be Gerard's voice, making Gee whimper and grab hold of Frank's arm. 

Frank seemed so protective and so fucking angry. Ready to kill someone. And Dr Leighton's words didn't help him out at all. Frank was barely ever violent but just the idea of Gerard being hurt and Frank not being able to protect him drove him crazy. He knew that Dr Leighton was just trying to get to him but he didn't know how to stop himself from letting it affect him.

"What the fuck do you mean?" He hissed and Gerard made a choked sound from behind him, burning with shame as he realised what Dr Leighton was going to talk about.

"I had plenty of time with him alone." Dr Leighton chuckled evilly "I touched him all I wanted." The suggestive way he said it made Frank scream out.

"Fuck you! You fucking bastard!" He screamed and Gerard had to hold him back from rushing in toward the doctor and getting himself hurt.

"Yeah, I touched him in all the ways you wanna touch him, Frank." The doctor continued and Gerard knew was he dragging it out and making it worst than it was. "Got him to take his clothes off for me--"

"He's lying!" Gerard shouted and pointed an accusing finger to the doctor, making Frank jump, not expecting him to speak. Plus, he'd never heard Gerard sound so loud or angry. "He's lying, he didn't do any of that!" 

Gerard knew Dr Leighton had touched him, but he hadn't made him take his clothes off. He just needed to calm Frank down.

Frank growled but visibly relaxed, pointing what was left of the vase toward the doctor. "Lier." He accused.

"Okay, okay, I didn't make him take his clothes off." Dr Leighton laughed as if messing with Frank and Gerard's emotions was a big joke to him. Which it probably was. "But I did touch him. Felt him up a bit, just so I could tell you what to expect--"

"Shut up!" Frank shouted, his face red. Gerard had started to sob in shame. He felt so dirty, more so now because of Dr Leighton's words.

"What happened to you?!" Gee shouted through his tears "What the fuck happened to you that made you like this?!" He asked, knowing what the truth was but wanting to hear it directly from the doctor's mouth.

The doctor showed an angry reaction for the first time, his face burning red as he clenched his jaw. 

"You want to know what fucking happened?" He shouted and the room went unexpectedly dark and cold, all the light being sucked out of it. Frank and Gerard looked around in fear. Wind started to blow out of nowhere.

"You wanna know?!" He shouted again and Frank wrapped his arms around Gerard to protect him from the wind that was picking up the rubbish around the room at that point.

"They killed her! They killed my daughter! They killer my innocent little girl! She didn't do anything! She didn't do anything to deserve that! She was happy' she had he whole life ahead of her!" Tears were starting to stream down Dr Leighton's face and Gerard let go to Frank in favour of walking closer to the doctor through the strong wind, Frank shouting at him to come back but not being able to follow him as he was hit in the stomach by a flying object and knocked to the ground.

"So I fucking realised how messed up this world is. How messed up humans are. If my little girl didn't get to live, why should they?!" The doctor was so lost in himself that he was barely aware of Gerard.

Ryan blinked his blurry eyes and looked around, his ears ringing from the pain in his head. He groaned and realised that wind was blowing around him. Gerard's jumper was lying nearby, somehow not flying around the room, and he could see his blood on it. He grabbed it and pressed it to his head again with dreary actions.

He ignored the protest in his body and stood up, holding onto the wall so he didn't fall over again. He took deep breaths and tried to register the world around him. He could see Frank on the floor and Gerard in the middle of the currents of wind which had formed around the room, right next to Dr Leighton. He groaned and walked closer to Frank, reaching him soon and placing a hand on his shoulder where he was on the ground, helping him up.

"They deserved to die!" The doctor was shouting and Gerard suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Stop!" He shouted and somehow the doctor snapped out of his trance slightly and the wind slowed down a bit. "Stop! It's okay!"

The doctor stared at him with such a lost and broken look that Gerard felt his heart hurt for him, crying harder.

"It's okay. It's over now. I know it hurts, I know she didn't deserve it. I'm sorry." He started, not knowing what he was doing but hoping it would work. "I know.. And I know you're angry."

The wind stopped completely, Ryan and frank staring in awe as a few objects dropped down from where they were rushing around in the wind in midair. 

"But it can all be over now." Gerard smiled gently with tears in his eyes, not needing to speak loudly now that the wind had stopped "Don't you want to rest? Don't you want to be with her? Shouldn't it all be over?"

Dr Leighton seemed to consider it, his true self shining through the demon he had become for a little while. "But.. but she's in heaven now. I'll never make it there next to her." He sobbed and Gerard rubbed his back with a small smile.

"If you ask for forgiveness now, if you realised you made a mistake; He will forgive you." He tried this approach with the man. "You can be with her. It's not too late." 

Gerard thought he'd done right and that the doctor had agreed with him and decided to give up and rest. Until his face hardened his eyes turned red "It is too late." He mumbled and Gerard went to ask him what he said but he was suddenly encountered with a palm on his forehead and then an excruciating pain in every inch of his body. He screamed loudly.

"It's too late!" The doctor shouted and he continued to cry as he made Gerard writhe in pain and fall to his knees. 

The picture fell out of his back pocket and Frank, in a state of shock, ran and grabbed it, realising what it was. The doctor was so dead set on hurting Gerard that he made no attempt to stop Frank. Frank would have dove between them and stopped him but he knew the real way to help Gerard was to get the photo to Ryan. He would only hurt himself and Gerard and get nowhere.

He rushed back to Ryan and handed him the picture and although Ryan was winded he felt the energy inside the photo and realised what the hell was happening. He took a deep breath and stood up and started to chant the words he had memorised so well in his head under his breath.

It only took a few seconds for the doctor to gasp and take his hand off Gerard's forehead, Gerard immediately collapsing. Frank ran to him and dragged his head in his lap, muttering sweet words to him, telling him it would all be over soon.

"What.. what are you doing?" The doctor choked breathlessly and Ryan didn't answer, only continued to chant religiously. Frank couldn't understand what he was saying.

"What are you doing?!" Dr Leighton shouted again and moved to take a step toward Ryan to stop him but it was already too late and the moment he stepped he screamed loudly as his skin seemingly melted away into black goo, melting down to the floor as his tortured screams filled the room. 

His face melted away as well eventually and the cried ceased as he became nothing but a pile of black. Dead forever now. Gone for good.

Just after Ryan started chanting a blue light lifted itself from the black goo and floated in the air above it, making even Gerard, who was in a world of pain still, look up. The blue light filled the room and slowly took shape to form the doctor. Only kinder looking. Relieved. He was free. He smiled at them, and then he faded away.

The room sank into darkness again and as soon as Ryan was sure the ghost was gone he looked to the sky and muttered "It's over." 

He rushed over to where Frank and Gerard were. He could feel Gerard's energy fading. Oh man. This wasn't good.

"R-Ryan?" Frank asked, sounding scared and choked up. "W-what's happening?" He asked and Ryan was left speechless, not knowing what to say. Nothing he could say would comfort Frank. Gerard was simply leaving. For what reason, he didn't know. But he was.

"Ryan?!" Frank asked again as his hand faded through Gerard. He started to cry. Gerard was still barely conscious. Ryan didn't answer again.

"Gerard? Gerard, jesus, little ghost, you've got to stay with me! It's over! It's over now!" He said to Gerard but Gerard barely moved at all "G-Gee..?" Frank whimpered and his voice cracked.

"You were so brave today, Gee. So brave for me. I'm so proud of you." Frank cried and spoke through his tears. Gerard finally blinked and groaned.

"Frank.." he whispered and Frank cried harder "I'm sorry." 

"What for, babyboy?" Frank answered.

"I.. I can't stay." 

Frank felt his heart crack. He wanted to scream.

"N-no, y-you can't leave me! Y-you can't!" He was sobbing harshly, his chest hurting so much. Was it from the punches and kicks? Was it from Gerard's words? He didn't know.

"W-we did it, Gerard! You've gotta stay, we've gotta make you come back!" Frank shouted and tried to caress Gerard's face but his hand phased right through. 

Gerard started to cry silently as well. "I'm sorry." 

"No!" Frank shouted.

He had no time to say anything else, to hold him tighter, to clutch him and try, try not to ever let him go. Gerard became more see-through. His beautiful eyes faded away and his feet started to disappear completely. Frank, realising what was happening, tried to lean in and kiss him. But he had disappeared before he could even get close.

He was gone.

Frank screamed.


	15. Casper The Not-Ghost, or The Epilogue

Gerard woke up

He couldn't breathe.

Everything around him was dark. His hands clutched around him and he was met with wood, close to him on every direction. His mind panicked. He was in a coffin. How?

It didn't take long for the panic to set in and for his fingers to scratch at the wood above him with urgency. The wood, thankfully, chipped away under his fingertips very easily as if it was rotten, as if it were almost soft and pliable under his touch. Getting it to break was the easy part but then before Gerard could comprehend anything that was happening, he was met with a mouthful of dirt as earth cascaded over his body, making him feel more trapped than he had before. He realised that the right moment to move would be now before the dirt set and he couldn't make his way through it in time to find air. His lungs were already very angry at the situation and his ribcage felt as if it were pounding with the force of his heart, begging for oxygen.

His hands clawed desperately again, against the dirt this time, and when his hands found air, his head and then mouth and lungs soon following, a wave of relief flowed through his body.

He dragged himself out of the dirt and lay on the ground, his eyes shut tightly as he breathed deeply. Mow that he was out of that situation he had time to notice that breathing was difficult for him, as if he hadn't felt it or done it in a while, and his hands were pounding with pain. Bringing them up and in front of his face, he realised they were bleeding, splinters stuck in his usually soft and pale skin. This must have happened from the coffin without him realising, in his urgency and panic.

He finally took a second to try and almost remember how to breathe properly. He remembered breathing, after all it felt as if he'd been doing it just a moment before he awoke in the coffin, but this breathing was somehow different. His lungs truly filled with air, totally and absolutely, and his diaphragm widened with incredible relief, as if it had been longing to stretch like this in a while. The rest of his body had gone unscathed, other than the hands with blood on them, and he felt perfectly normal despite having evidently crawled right out of the earth that held his own coffin.

He finally took a second to look around him. It was sunrise and he was in a cemetery, all by himself. The sun was just starting to bathe the fields around him with warm rays of light, weird shadows cascading all over the ground because of the headstones of the graves. Speaking of headstones, that one was definitely his.

His name was inscribed on it and he felt a weird chill crawl through him as he read it, his birth and death dates also on there as well with the message "Taken from us too soon. A loving brother and son. We will always remember him". Gerard looked away before he could contemplate the stone and the carvings too much. There was a small hole with collapsed dirt right near him, where he had crawled out of no doubt. 

Suddenly, he gasped and gripped his chest, a pounding pain going through it. A series of memories flashed in his head. He remembered feeling a hand on his forehead, a stinging pain, like knives, all through his body, and then he remembered lying on the ground, Frank over him and looking down--

Frank.

Gerard began to panic. What had happened? What had made him end up right back in his grave, actually alive again, after that? Where was Frank? Where was Ryan? Where was his brother? Where was Dr Leighton? How much time had passed? He didn't remember what time it was when he passed out from Dr Leighton's magic trick or whatever.

He stood up quickly, going lightheaded and almost falling right back down again before he steadied himself and took a second to observe that he felt absolutely normal, apart from the anxiety gripping his soul as he went over the events he remembered. It was almost as if he had never been a ghost, as if he had never been in a coffin, and as if he had never been shot.

At the memory of being shot, of the bullet going through his brain, he reached up and clutched at his forehead, feeling no scar or wound or hole or any evidence at all of any trauma actually ever happening. If he hadn't just crawled out his own goddamn coffin, he would think that maybe he dreamt the whole thing up.

He whimpered as he tried to think about where he was and how to get to Mikey's, or someone's, from here. He felt his body try to cry, although he didn't have any water inside him, as he realised he really was alone and the eerie silence around him set in, making him long for just a second without silence, making him want to scream just to fill it, as if all he had been hearing for a long time was silence and he just wanted it to end before it drove him insane.

He pulled himself together and took a few deep breaths, rubbing his eyes roughly.

Frankie would want him to be a big boy right then. That's what he would tell him, to tale a few deep breaths and calm down and then figure out what to do. Gerard told this to himself over and over until finally it felt as if he could almost hear Frank's voice in his head, telling him those exact words.

He walked speedily to the gate of the cemetery, which thankfully was close by, and managed to climb over the gate and make his way outside without getting himself too hurt like he thought he would. This motivated him to look around him and begin to realise where he was. His face lit up. Mikey's place was close. He was in the city.

He took sure steps toward the direction he knew Mikey lived in, ignoring the fact that a few passersby that were walking their dogs or doing their early morning jog stared at him intently with dropped jaws. It took him the best, most convincing words that Frank would say to not break down crying because of their stares, feeling alienated. He knew he was covered in a few layers of dirt and his hands were bleeding. There was probably blood on his forehead too from when he touched it.

Thankfully, Mikey was really close to the cemetery. Gerard's brain took a moment to think of what it would have been like for Mikey to walk the kilometre or so until the cemetery to visit his brother's grave. He shivered and forced himself to stop thinking about it before he turned round and attempted to throw up the emptiness in his stomach. Only then he realised how fucking hungry he was. His stomach growled loudly just as he made it to Mikey's door. He knocked loudly and hoped Mikey would be up at 6:30 in the morning. Or at least that he wasn't having one of those 'heavy sleeping' days where nothing woke him up.

He wasn't. There was a soft pitter-patter from inside and soon he emerged from behind the door with an angry look on his face, muttering curse words. His scowl disappeared the moment he was met with the sight of Gerard. He gasped.

"Gerard?!" He whispered incredulously.

"M-Mikey." Gerard stuttered, his voice raw and raspy. He was sure he hadn't used it in a while.

"Oh my God." Mikey called out and his eyes filled with tears as he smiled widely, his hands over his mouth. Gerard found that his eyes copied Mikey's and his lips also smiled, although they hurt and felt cracked. He needed water.

"Oh my God!" Mikey repeated and hugged Gerard tightly, Gerard hugging him back just as tight, his head on Mikey's chest as they embraced and cried in each others arms.

They stayed like that, silent, for a long time before Mikey pulled away and gripped Gerard's face by the cheeks between his hands. 

"I cannot believe this. Fuck, it's a miracle." He murmured and dragged Gerard inside, sitting him down on a chair at the kitchen table and immediately getting him a cup of water, which Gerard drowned down in a few seconds flat. Same with the second and third and fourth until he finally refused the fifth cup. He attempted speaking again, now that his throat wasn't sore and dry.

"W-what happened?" He still stuttered, his throat muscles worn out from not being used. 

Mikey sighed softly "I wasn't actually there myself but, Frank and Ryan said you just disappeared one second and didn't come back." 

Gerard nodded his head a few times. That didn't answer all his questions but he was at least a bit relieved to know that Ryan and Frank were still alive. That must mean they beat the doctor!

"Did they.. did they get rid of Dr Leighton?" He asked and Mikey nodded with a gentle smile.

"They did!" He said "I don't know how much you remember but Frank said that you found the item and gave it to them and Ryan performed some kind of spell and made the Doctor disappear. Made him.. well, rest." 

Gerard suddenly recalled the secret room under the basement and the smell of rotted flesh, the doctor and what he had attempted to do to him down there. Finding the picture and leaving the room. Ryan and the blood. Fuck, there had been so much blood.

"Was Ryan okay after?" He asked, pausing all the recalling he had been doing to be concerned.

Mikey's chest deflated as if he had been dreading this question to be asked.

"Gerard, Ryan didn't... he didn't make it after," he said softly, taking Gerard's hand in his "He lost too much blood. By the time everything was over and they had time to focus on his wounds it was too late and he died from blood loss."

Gerard sat there, shocked, just staring emptily at Mikey. 

"Y-you're joking.." he murmured "But.. but Ryan's strong.." 

Mikey sighed and hugged Gerard again before Gerard even realised that he really needed it "I know, but.. I'm sorry, he just didn't make it. I wish I could say things were different."

Gerard started to very suddenly cry and he wasn't even sure how he had enough water, even after four cups, for his body to make tears roll down his face, and he sobbed against Mikey's chest for a few minutes, thinking about Ryan, about how this was his fucking fault. If he hadn't been hurt they would have been able to help Ryan quicker. Even worst than that, if he hadn't tried to 'scare' Frank in the first place or if he hadn't made his existence known to him, Ryan wouldn't be called at all and he'd be with his boyfriend in Vegas or whatever. Oh god, his boyfriend, oh god.

"Oh god." He said out loud. Mikey didn't ask what he was thinking.

Then Gerard got to thinking. How did Frank feel after that? He had just witnessed Gerard disappear into thin air and then Ryan died too? And he was just left alone in the house, with nothing? Nothing but himself? Gerard shivered and started to cry harder at the thought.

"No, no, come on, you'll get dehydrated again." Mikey cooed and rubbed his arms softly to calm him down.

It surprisingly worked and Gerard got himself to stop crying, trying not to think too much about Ryan or about Frank's experience after all that. He wiped his eyes and gratefully accepted water when Mikey got him more. He drank it down and then gathered his strength to ask even more questions.

"And.. and what happened to Frank?" He questioned and Mikey visibly looked glad to move on from the Ryan subject.

"He.. he didn't take it all very well. He moved." Mikey said and Gerard guessed he would have done as much. Gerard would have too.

"He took all your stuff and all his stuff and he moved." Mikey continued and Gerard nodded.

"To where? Where can I find him?" He asked and Mikey looked at him a bit awkwardly for a second.

"W-well, he moved to--" 

"Gerard?" There was another voice and Mikey and Gerard's heads snapped up to look at the new asset to their conversation.

It was Ray. Gerard jumped up and hugged him tightly before he could even get himself to say anything. He just hugged him tightly and Ray hugged back, barely comprehending what was happening.

"Y-you're back!" He shouted as Gerard pulled away and tugged Ray to sit with them at the kitchen table. "That's.. wow!" He said and Gerard giggled a little.

"Yeah, I.. I crawled my way out a coffin." He shivered and showed them his hands, Ray wincing at the sight and Mikey gasping. 

As soon as Ray had sat down he stood up again and grabbed a first aid kit from the bathroom, coming back and telling Gerard to put his hands on the table so he could see them and clean them. Gerard winced as Ray started to take out the wood embedded in his palms and fingers. He continued the conversation with Mikey in an attempt to distract himself from the pain.

"Y-you were saying?" He asked and Mikey spat it out.

"He moved to Italy." He said and Gerard gaped "Three years ago."

Gerard shifted at that and Ray scolded him and told him to keep still. He sent Ray an apologetic look just as Ray started to clean his wounds.

"I-It's been three years?!" He said with surprise evident in his voice.

"Actually, it's been five. He stayed here for two years before he couldn't take it and moved away. Apparently he had family in Italy and decided it'd be good for him. Of course we all let him go. He keeps in contact." Mikey informed.

Gerard stayed silent for a long time, even after his hands had been wrapped up with gauze and he had pulled them back to his body. Ray and Mikey both just stared at him for the whole time, startled a bit when Gerard suddenly spoke.

"Can you book me a flight to Italy? As soon as possible?" He said and Mikey gaped.

"You.. Gerard, you're terrified of flying." He reminded him and Gerard huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't care, I'm flying to Italy as soon as possible, okay?" He said those words probably firmer than he had ever said anything else in his life.

Mikey and Ray didn't even speak. They weren't used to this Gerard, the one that actually took charge and stood up and it made Mikey smile to think that Frank was the cause of this. That's why he grabbed his laptop as soon as he could and bought a ticket to Italy literally as soon as possible, two days after.

Gerard stood up and smiled "Now, I'm really sorry about your awesome wrapping and stuff Ray," he said, his hands up "But I really desperately need a shower. And food, but I'll have some after." 

Mikey nodded and Ray said he'd make him something. Gerard wanted to tell him he should probably make a whole lot but felt rude to and stayed silent instead. Mikey led him to the bathroom and gave him a towel and then brought him some of his own clothes, way too big for Gerard but that was okay, and keft them in the bathroom for him.

Gerard didn't generally like taking showers but that shower he had then, which lasted about an hour mind you, was definitely the best and most satisfying wash he'd had in his life. He watched the dirt and grease slip off his body and down the drain as he washed himself, trying not to care too much about the pain that brought on for his hands. 

When he got out the shower, he felt significantly better than he did before, even happy, despite the thought of Ryan in his mind. He knew he would visit him soon. Say a thanks. Say everything else. Bring him flowers and all that stuff that Ryan surely deserved. 

When he made his way to the kitchen, in Mikey's oversized shirt and (baggy) skinny jeans, there was a whole big meal awaiting him. Turns out Ray could cook very well. There were two eggs and three slices of bacon, a potato salad and a stack of four, thick pancakes with chocolate and then two cheese toasties and a cup of steaming coffee, black, just the way Gerard liked it.

It was fair to say the meal was gone within seconds and Gerard was left feeling actually very satisfied. 

He leant back in his chair and sighed, holding his stomach "Fuck, thank you so much. I needed that so bad." He said and Ray and Mikey shrugged it off.

"It's all good, Gee," the nickname reminded Gerard of Frank. "But maybe we should all get some sleep now." Ray suggested and Gerard and Mikey agreed immediately.

Gerard was shown to the guest room, thankfully the bed was already made, and as soon as he had landed on the mattress and got under the covers (and Mikey kissed his forehead and made a show of tucking him in), he had fallen into a deep slumber that was only stopped the next day, after twenty five hours of sleep.

**

Gerard had a hard time flying. He gripped onto the tiny seat with white hands as they flew in a metal can, squeezed together like sardines. He had taken a tablet of xanax and that had made things considerably better, enough so that he could eat some of the shit meals that were provided to him in-flight.

He had taken only one bag with him even though he was sure that he would not be coming back to America for a while. Mikey knew it, without Gerard mentioning it, and their goodbye at the airport consisted of Mikey telling him that Frank had all the stuff of his he'd really want, like his art supplies and sketch books and books and movies and posters. All his clothes and other miscellaneous items that Gerard knew weren't really needed right then, or could be repurchased, were at his parents' house. He had a small carry-on bag with a bottle of water and a different change of Mikey's clothes than the one that he was wearing already. He also had those xanax tablets. He had to resist downing them a few times. Seeing Frank would be worth this stupid flight.

He landed in Italy at 7pm local time, just when the place was starting to get dark and Gerard didn't even care for looking up from the floor to see what the hell this foreign country he'd never been to looked like, just hopping in a taxi and thankfully having minimal trouble telling the very italian address that Mikey had written for him on a piece of paper to the taxi driver.

And before he knew it he was there, right before a large house, very pretty, among small italian streets, the european vibe all around. He walked up to the dark wood door and raised his hand.

It stayed there for a while as he finally considered the option he hadn't wanted to think about for a while. What if Frank didn't want him anymore? What if he didn't want what he had promised five years ago? What if he had found someone new and moved on and was happy, what if he thought that Gerard had ruined everything and didn't even want to remember his name? What if--

No. He wouldn't do this anymore. He wouldn't let this voice inside his head get to him. Because that's what he'd been doing all his life. All he had been doing was let this mental illness take him over without even giving a fight, letting all of his life go to accomodate these voices inside his head that told him he wasn't worth anything. But he was. Frank had shown him that. Frank had shown him that somehow everyone was worth something, so had Ryan. They'd shown him that even Dr Leighton, who had gone absolutely crazy, was worth something in the end, that he wasn't just a madman with no conscious. All he had done was let him demons overtake him without giving a fight, or he had decided the fight was too much and just let it go. And he'd ended up like that, not knowing who he was, not being able to deal with himself, with his daughter's death. Gerard wouldn't let his demons overtake him like that. He wouldn't let them have control of his brain any longer, he wouldn't let them make him question every action of his, every look shot his way by complete strangers. It wouldn't be like that anymore. He was strong now. He would become strong, if he wasn't right at that moment. He would beat this. And he'd have Frank by his side while he did it.

He knocked on the door.

There was a voice calling from inside in italian and Gerard's heart fluttered as he realised it was Frank. He bit his lip and tried to hold back his ginormous smile.

Frank opened the door and the moment his eyes looked over Gerard's face, they widened. His hands opened the door fully so that he was face to face with Gerard, so close to him now, as close as he had been five years ago.

"Hey, Frankie." Gerard said with a small smile and Frank's eyes welled up with tears.

"Gee.." he mumbled, his hand going up to stroke Gerard's cheek. Gerard shut his eyes gratefully and lesned into the touch, his hand going over Frank's. Touching him again after what felt like an eternity felt like it was letting his body breathe, like something had been lifted from his chest.

"My little ghost.." Frank whimpered then and his voice cracked as he started to cry happy tears.

"Yes.." Gerard agreed even though Frank hadn't asked a question. He'd just missed the nickname so much, even though for him five years had gone by in the blink of an eye. It somehow felt like an eternity.

"Y-you're alive! H-how--"

"I've been thinking about it for the past few days since I came back." Gerard started, loving that he wasn't the one stuttering for once "I think the task that Ryan was talking about was setting Dr Leighton free. The moment we did it I disappeared. It only makes sense."

Frank nodded a few times and still stared at Gerard with an open mouth "Well.. why did it take so long then?" He asked.

Gerard shrugged gently, looking down with a sad look in his eyes. Frankie had grown older, you could see it in his eyes. Gerard couldn't help but think of all the lost time that they could have had together, like they wanted it to be. He wished he had an excuse as to why it all happened, why the five years went wasted, why Frank had to live without him for five whole years, believing the man he was.. well.. in love with, to be dead.

"I don't know." Gerard finally said "But I'm here now.. and.. and I'm hoping that's enough."

Frank smiled and pulled Gerard into the tightest hug he'd ever pulled anyone into. His chine was on top of Gerard's head, and a few happy tears rolled down his face. 

"Fuck, I missed you so much." He murmured, not ever wanting to let go.

"I missed you too." Gerard said and before he could second-guess himself, he quickly added "I love you." 

Frank's breath caught in his throat and he squeezed impossibly tighter. He'd been waiting to hear those words for so long. For the longest time he thought he wouldn't hear the.

"I love you too. I'm glad we did get it sorted. And that... now we can do what we planned." Frank sighed happily. "You remember, right?"

"Of course!" Gerard smiled against Frank's chest "I'm yours. And you're mine."

Frank pulled away and held Gerard's face in his hands, smiling with the most loved up look in his eyes "Mine." He whispered and then he leaned in and kissed Gerard.

Gerard kissed back immediately, his hands coming up to go on top of Frank's as he resisted the urge to smile into the kiss. His body pushed right up against Frank's and Frank pulled his hands away from Gerard's cheeks to put on his waist, Gerard's arms wrapping around his neck and tugging slightly at the hair at the nape of his neck. It felt like... like everything that Gerard had missed about being alive, somehow much different from when he kissed Frank as a ghost, or whatever he was. This felt proper, it felt like contact, skin on skin, warmth and touch and feeling deep inside his chest just like he'd always wanted it. Frank gave this feeling to him even as a ghost, when his skin was pale and ice cold. And now to be able to feel him right up against his body and to feel his lips on his. He was sure there was no feeling that would ever beat this.

He didn't care what had happened before. He would honour Ryan, apologise to those he had hurt, forget his problems, the gunshot and Dr Leighton, and he'd live with Frank just how they had planned. Just how Gerard wanted it to be.

Things did work out in the end, even when Gerard convinced himself that they wouldn't. Even when Gerard had no hope, he unknowingly pushed on, wanting the happy ending. And he really fought for it, he really did. It would have been easy to give in, to give up, to become just like Dr Leighton. And Gerard felt as if he got very close. But he did it. He really did it. Frank had a huge part to play with his motivation, of course, but at the end of day he had done it. And he knew everyone around him was proud, and that this was what they wanted for him. He knew Ryan was proud. He knew everything would be okay eventually.

The worst was over now.  
He could live with Frank, Freaky Frank, and be his. Just like they'd promised each other.

And that's just what they did


End file.
